Gold Industry Organizations

Australian Gold Council

The Australian Gold Council was formed in 1999 to promote the interests of the Australian gold industry at home and abroad. It aims to represent both large and small gold producers and exploration companies.

Gold Institute

The Gold Institute is a Washington DC-based international industry association representing mining companies, refiners, banks, dealers and suppliers. Its role is to promote the common business interests of the gold industry, and to educate the public on the benefits and values of gold and the economic importance the industry plays in the economy. It represents its members in matters before legislative and regulatory bodies and serves as a spokesperson for the industry to the media and public. Additionally the Institute is a clearing house for industry information, economic and market research, and statistical data. The Institute’s publications include forecasts on mine production, a newsletter covering current trends and other statistical data.

World Gold Council (WGC)

The World Gold Council (WGC) is an international organization formed and funded by leading gold mining companies to increase the demand for gold and to influence the attitudes of actual and potential public and private sector holders of gold. The WGC also offers technical support to jewelry manufacturers and industrial users of gold. Publications include the quarterly Gold Demand Trends, specialist research reports on public policy topics in gold, and the technical magazines Gold Bulletin and Gold Technology and manuals on gold jewelry manufacturing.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)

Intercontinental Exchange is an electronic commodity marketplace used by over 600 of the world’s leading energy and metals traders, brokers and bankers. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, it was established in 2000 by US and European financial institutions and energy and natural resource companies. Trading in gold and silver – spot, forward and options – began on 24 August 2000.

The Exchange’s electronic trading system is installed on over 8,500 desktops worldwide from which traders log on each day of the business week to trade more than 600 listed commodity and derivative contract types. Broadly, these include crude and refined oil products, natural gas, power, coal, emissions, weather, and precious metals. Contract forms include physical delivery as well as financially settled swaps, spreads, differentials and options based on a variety of fixed and floating price indices.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was conceived at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944 to promote international monetary co-operation and stability. It opened in Washington DC in 1947.

All member nations originally contributed to the fund, partly in gold or dollars and partly in their own currencies. As a result, the IMF holds 3,217 tonnes (103.4 million oz) of gold, making it the world’s third largest holder after the United States and Germany.

The IMF, however, was in the forefront of the drive to demonetize gold during the 1970s. It created its own Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), initially defining one SDR as equivalent to 0.888671 g (0.0028 oz) of fine gold. This link was later snapped in the effort to end gold as the numeraire of the monetary system and SDRs were linked instead to a basket of leading trade currencies.

The IMF also reduced its own gold stocks in a series of monthly auctions starting in 1976; they sold 777.6 tonnes (25 million oz) over four years at an average price of $246 per ounce. They also permitted members to buy back their gold, thus disposing of another 777.5 tonnes. The aim was to reduce gold’s monetary role and to create a trust fund to aid developing countries.

The remaining gold is held on its books at the long out-dated price of SDR35/oz (about $44/oz).

In 1999, a proposal to sell 10% of its remaining stock in order to fund debt-relief for heavily-indebted poor countries was seriously considered by the IMF. The proposal was , however, strongly opposed by many gold producing countries and by the mining industry. This influenced the IMF’s decision to reject the idea of outright sales, with instead the Fund later finding a less contentious means of raising the necessary resources. The Washington Agreement limiting European central banks’ sales, reached at the IMF meeting in September 1999, would only complicate further the reaching of a consensus on any future plan for gold disposals by the IMF, of which at present there is no sign.