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Thursday, 29th June 2006 (6335 views)

Due to the recent high gold prices and high demand for the precious metal, gold refiners are boosting their output, Reuters reports.

Despite a recent decline from 26-year highs of $730 an ounce in mid-May, the price of gold has fallen by over 20 per cent in the last few weeks but still remains significantly higher than it was at the turn of the year.

With refineries reaching capacity, under pressure to produce as much refined gold as possible to take advantage of the economic boom, industry efficiency is being improved and production volumes are being forced upwards.

"Gold has been in fashion," said Mehdi Barkhordar, the managing director of PAMP refinery in Switzerland. "There was a lot of recycling and product demand at the same time, which is very rare."

PAMP is one of several refinery companies to lift its production capabilities in recent months – it now has a 30 per cent higher turn out of 450 tons.

The situation for refiners has reached a threshold now, meaning scrap refining is now coming from previously unfamiliar markets.

"Scrap traditionally goes to the Swiss market but now we are seeing some scrap coming to us from India and Dubai markets," said South Africa's Rand Refinery managing director, Alan Muir.

"That's basically because the Swiss scrap refining capacity is full," he added, "so we got additional capacity."

 

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