We’ve all heard about Fort Knox in the USA where America’s gold reserves are supposed to be stored.
London is one of the financial centers of the world. Have you ever wondered where gold bullion is stored in that city?
This “hidden gold mine” of the United Kingdom’s gold reserves, just uncovered by the BBC, is stored in some massive vaults beneath the Bank of England.
The value of the gold held in storage is estimated to be about $200 Billion. Here’s what the BBC had to say:
Under London’s streets lies a hidden gold mine.
It stretches across more than 300,000 square feet under the City, the finance quarter in the heart of Britain’s capital. There, beneath the pavement and commuters of Threadneedle Street, lies a maze of eight Bank of England gold vaults – each stacked with gold bars worth a total sum of around £141 billion ($200 billion).
The bars sit on rows of blue numbered shelves. Every bar weighs precisely 400 troy ounces (about 12kg), making each currently worth some £350,000 ($500,000), comfortably more than the average price of a house in the UK. Each bar looks subtly different depending on where it was refined. Some bars have sloping edges to make them easier to pick up; others look more like a loaf of bread.
There is no smell here: metal has none. There is no noise, either, on account of the vaults’ thick concrete walls.
What there is, however, is one of the world’s most important traded assets. Deals are still done in gold in almost every country in the world. Its price is a crucial barometer for consumer confidence. Prices rise when markets are uncertain, and before US elections – like now.
“Gold is a hedge against uncertainty,” says Jonathan Spall, a long-time gold trader and now managing director of G Cubed Metal.
You can read the BBC’s full article here.
