Kazakhstan has had our attention, for a variety of reasons, over the past
several years. This country, whose economy is moving north, at an ever
increasing pace, has mainly held our attention due to the fact that she has
been steadily acquiring gold for well almost 6 years and was tapped back in
February 2016 by China’s Shanghai Gold Exchange to discuss gold as payment along the Belt and Road Initiative. Now
we learn their desire for gold has gone exponential.
In our last report, in May 2018, our analysis revealed
the following:
In 2016 Kazakhstan added a total of 36 tons of gold and in 2017 she
added an additional 40 tons of physical gold showing more than a 10% increase
year-over-year volume. No Kazakhstan is not breaking records or jumping past
China and approaching Frances’ gold reserve status such as Russia is doing,
but Kazakhstan is passing all her associates and will be moving into the top
ten gold holdings in short order. If this trend continues into 2018
Kazakhstan will move into 16th position globally passing Saudi Arabia and
approaching 15th position Portugal that holds 382.5 tons. Will anyone
notice at that time?
Well, according to the latest official count Kazakhstan has surpassed
Saudi Arabia and is, in fact, approaching Portugal. If the current pace of
gold acquisitions continues Kazakhstan will move up the gold ladder rather
quickly.
[ Editor’s Note: The chart above does not include the IMF’s gold
holdings. The IMF, as of March 2018, holds 2814 tons of gold is in third
position behind Germany and ahead of Italy. The rankings we discuss
below take the IMF’s ranking into consideration even though they are not
listed above. ]
The chart above, courtesy of Trading
Economics, shows the top 20 nations gold reserves as of June 2018. As you
can see Kazakhstan is 15th. In July 2018 she added 160,000 ounces or said
another way, just shy of 5 tons of gold. This is a substantial change, as she
only added 40 tons total in all of 2017, an average of just of 3 tons per
month. At this current pace that would represent close to a 50% increase in
gold acquisitions year over year. This is on top of the more than 10%, year
over year increase from 2016 to 2017. Someone is Kazakhstan is placing an ever
increasing importance on stacking physical gold.
As of the end of July 2018 Kazakhstan now holds 326.58 tons of gold, more
than 4 tons over 15th position Saudi Arabia and mere 56 tons short of
overtaking the 14th position in gold reserve holdings currently held by
Portugal. At the current pace Kazakhstan will be within 35 tons of, 13th
position,Taiwan’s holdings by this time next year. Considering that a short 6
years ago she was in 28th position in world gold reserve rankings and is on
pace to move into the 14th position over the next 12 months, that is a
massive move.
To put this in perspective, if Kazakhstan continues the current pace of
gold acquisitions, over the next six years, she will be in 7th position in
world gold reserve rankings immediately behind China and Russia. That would
be an unprecedented move. My guess is, Kazakhstan’s current gold acquisitions
pace already has the attention of the monetary madmen at the IMF and BIS.
Our research has demonstrated the vast mineral and natural resource wealth that lays
beneath the surface all across this nation, and gold is one is one of the
resources she has focused over the past several years increasing the volume
of mined gold by more than 50%. The more gold that Kazakhstan mines, the more
gold that she is able to acquire without having to go out in the open market.
This is a great benefit to their reserves and increases the nations wealth
with each ounce added to their reserves.
chart courtesy smaulgld
We have been following this nation for the simple fact they are making
moves in gold that are almost unprecedented. Either this is a nation run by
monetary idiots that like to collect “shiny things” or it is a nation run by
monetary genius’ that are preparing for a coming change in global monetary
policy. My bet is on the latter.
