Russia is now ranked in the global top four countries in terms of gold and foreign exchange reserves with a total of US$582 billion.
Russia Increased Gold Reserves During Year of War
Over the 12 months through February, the Bank of Russia's total holdings of foreign exchange and gold dropped to $574 billion from $617 billion.
Russia's position in global gold mining
Its mine production of gold stood at 300 metric tons in 2021, following China and Australia. In total, Russia accounted for 10 percent of global gold production.
The United States has the largest gold reserve, with more than 8,000 metric tons of gold. This was more than twice the gold reserves of Germany and more than three times the gold reserves of Italy and France.
Australia is estimated to have the world's largest gold reserves, with 9,500 tonnes or 17 per cent of the total world estimated gold reserves of 57,000 tonnes. Geoscience Australia estimates that 60 per cent of Australia's gold reserves are in Western Australia.
Either way, there is financial uncertainty. Precious metals are the counterbalance to that uncertainty. Russia, China, Brazil, Egypt, India, Turkey, Qatar, and many other countries are stockpiling gold to overthrow the Dollar and ensure sovereignty.
The central bank in Russia has fixed the value of the ruble to gold.
The United States holds the largest stockpile of gold reserves in the world by a considerable margin. In fact, the U.S. government has almost as many reserves as the next three largest gold-holding countries combined (Germany, Italy, and France). Russia rounds out the top five.
China's gold reserves stood at 2,011t as of 2022, 30t higher m-o-m and accounting for 3.6% of its total foreign reserves. In 2022, China declared two gold reserve rises during November and December, totalling 62t.
Bank of Russia Gold Storage
The Bank of Russia stores two-thirds of its gold reserves in Moscow in a Bank building on Ulitsa Pravdy (Pravda Street), and the remaining one-third of the gold reserves in a building in the city of St Petersburg.
International reserves in Russia monthly 2021-2023
As of May 5, 2023, Russia had about 599 billion U.S. dollars in international reserves. To compare, at the beginning of 2022, prior to the war in Ukraine, the value of foreign exchange reserves in the country was measured at 630.5 billion U.S. dollars.
Russians have also embraced unallocated metal accounts as protection against risk and inflation this year. Gold gives local investors freedom to diversify and protect their portfolio during "increased uncertainty," VTB senior vice president Dmitriy Breytenbikher said last year.
Some gold purchasing remains unaccounted for and although it is conjecture, it looks like China and Russia's central banks have been on a buying spree, according to Adrian Ash, director of research at marketplace exchange BullionVault.
Your finds
Minerals are the property of the Crown. If you discover gold or other minerals or gemstones on land not covered by a mining tenement, and the ground is Crown land (under the Mining Act 1978), then you are free to keep what you have found (as long as you hold a Miner's Right).
Cadia Mine in New South Wales, was the largest gold-producing mine in Australia, producing approximately 764.9 thousand ounces of gold and an estimated 32.5 million metric tons per annum (mmtpa) of Run-of-Mine (ROM) in 2021.
Ownership of minerals
As early as the sixteenth century, the common law has held that all gold and silver, whether situated on public or private land, has been owned by the Crown. This Royal prerogative has also been applied in Australia, by both common law and legislation.
If Russia accepts gold for oil, gold price doubles to $3,600, says Credit Suisse's Zoltan Pozsar. (Kitco News) - In a year of "unthinkable macro scenarios," Credit Suisse's Zoltan Pozsar said it is not improbable for gold to double to $3,600 an ounce if Russia responds to G7's oil price cap by accepting gold for crude.
Once Russia goes into gold standard, many other countries including China and some of the Middle Eastern nations would be keen to shift too. That would mean that EU cannot any longer pay for Russian oil in dollars or in Euro but has to either buy Rouble or trade gold.
As China and Russia develop their currency backed by gold, U.S. investors could see an increase in the price of gold and other precious metals due to increased demand from these countries' economies.
China has recently considerably ramped up its gold imports, in an effort to diversify the People's Bank of China's (PBOC) holdings, as well as reduce their reliance on the US dollar (DXY).
China's central bank may have secretly bought 300t of gold this year.
Such high inflation has left very few options for Turkish citizens that have forced them to buy gold to hedge against inflation.