The trend of accumulation continues onward, with no signs of slowly down, despite a sluggish precious metals paper market, a market that at this point can be considered nothing more than a complete and utter farce.
In the West, our central bankers appear to be continuing on with their blissful ignorance, as the world continues to become increasingly more and more financially unstable. With nothing truly solved since the 2008 crisis, but only papered over, we head into the great unknown, just awaiting the next crisis.
Meanwhile, they continue to dis-hoard our vital gold reserves, moving our assets towards the East, who are ecstatic to purchase every ounce, every gram they can get their hands on.
As has been well documented on the Sprott Money blog, both Russia and China have been adding to their gold reserves, in a massive way, with no signs of slowing down. In fact, they have been increasing their purchases, perhaps sensing that the protection that only hard money can offer, will soon be needed.
Adding to this demand in the physical markets, has been the ongoing repatriation of gold reserves by various countries around the world, as they realize that their hard money is held by foreign entities that have become increasingly hostile towards them over the last few years.
This double whammy has created a sucking sound in the physical precious metals markets, which was already thin to begin with. Yet, the cartel have down a fantastic job at keeping the canary in the coal mine silent during this time, suppressing the spot price in the process.
One other country that has joined the fray over the years has been Turkey, who have proven to have a bad case of the yellow metal fever, buying gold hand over fist and repatriating whatever they can get their hands on.
Adding to their reserves, Turkey has continued on with their accumulation trend, tripling their gold imports from 106 mt in 2016, to 361 mt in 2017. A massive increase.
Still, this has not been enough for them, as they are reporting huge investor and central bank demand. This has resulted in a continued accumulation of precious metals, adding another 30 mt in the first quarter of 2018.
Sadly, this gold has to come from somewhere, and it is widely speculated by precious metals experts that this gold is coming directly from the vaults in the West, as they continue to rehypothecate their reserves.
Sooner or later, the jig will be up and the farce will be over. However, they have defied the markets for far longer than anyone would of ever guessed.
The question that many of us have been asking for years now, is how long? How long can they last and how much longer can this fiat dam hold?
The answer to this is the same as it has always been, who knows, but one thing is certain, eventually the dam will break and one of the greatest bull markets this world has ever seen will unfold as precious metals are set loose and the free market asserts itself.
Until then, keep taking advantage of these artificially reduced prices and as always, keep stacking.
- As first seen on the Sprott Money Blog
