GoldCore Secure Storage

The most important decisions for those seeking to invest in and own precious metals is how to and where to store their bullion.

Gold and silver investors and buyers should diversify across storage locations to minimise event risks such as theft, capital and exchange controls, government levies and confiscation, terrorism, war and natural disasters that might affect one location or jurisdiction.

This may mean keeping a small quantity of gold at home or in our liquid and ultra-secure London vaults, while also storing some of your gold bullion in a secure international precious metals storage facility or vault, in a financially stable and politically stable jurisdiction.

GoldCore has partnered with Loomis and Brink’s, world leaders in precious and valuable storage solutions, to provide fully insured storage services to our UK clients across a number of international jurisdictions in Switzerland (Zurich), Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, the U.S. and the UK.

Given the very real systemic risks of today, ETF, unallocated and pool allocated gold should be avoided and gold and silver should be owned fully segregated and fully allocated.

GoldCore Secure Storage annual storage fees start at 1% per annum and storage fees of less than 1% are available for larger values of gold and silver bullion stored:

Storage charges are calculated and accrued daily based on a daily valuation of the client’s bullion holdings, and then billed three months in arrears at the start of February, May, August and November.

A daily billing calculation means that the storage fee is accurately applied to the changing value of the precious metals and reflects the changing gold price over the billing period. This calculation approach prevents large movements in the gold price affecting the bi-annual storage fee, which could occur if the fee was calculated based on just one day’s price.

When our clients buy bullion coins and bars, the initial purchase price does not include a storage fee.

The client is charged storage from the date their bullion assets are stocked into their sub account until the end of that storage cycle. Currently the storage periods are November to January, February to April, May to July and August to October. If a client buys mid cycle they are charged from that date up to the end of that storage period and then subsequently every 3 months until liquidation.

Therefore the client avoids an upfront storage fee and pays their storage fees in arrears.

Direct ownership of gold means owning actual individual gold bullion coins and or bars either in your possession or in fully segregated, allocated and fully insured accounts that you can access easily and quickly take delivery of your gold and silver bullion from.

There is no counterparty risk with direct ownership since the gold bullion is the legal property of you the investor, and should the provider go out of business this does not impact your ownership of, or your access to the gold bullion.

By having direct ownership of physical coins and bars you can sell your bullion back to any number of international bullion dealers. This reduces your dependence on one single provider and also means that you are not dependent on an online digital bullion platform where the gold has to be sold back within that platform.

Client precious metals stored by GoldCore at our partner vaults are audited via a tri-party auditing procedure. On a daily basis, GoldCore reconcile client precious metal storage holdings against the vault holding records of our storage partners. If discrepancies are found in the records, these are fully investigated and quickly resolved.

On an annual basis, GoldCore directs independent auditor Inspectorate International Limited to audit GoldCore client precious metal inventory stored at our storage vaults. This involves a physical inventory of all physical coin and bar records and an audit of the weights of a sample of the precious metals holdings held in accounts. Discrepancies, if found, are brought to the attention of GoldCore and the storage provider and investigated and quickly corrected.

Clients with GoldCore Secure Storage accounts enjoy full transparency and accessibility over their holdings. Customers using Loomis’ storage vaults in Dublin, Zurich, Hong Kong or London, and our Brink’s vaults in Singapore, can log on to the respective vault storage providers’ websites and view their holdings in an inventory reporting application. With a phone call or signed communication, clients can visit and inspect their holdings or instruct GoldCore to move their bullion to another jurisdiction or deliver to a location of their choice.

GoldCore has partnered with Loomis International since 2009 to offer GoldCore’s UK clients a choice of secure precious metals storage in Loomis’s vaults in Zurich, Hong Kong, Dublin and London.

Loomis International was originally a member company of the Via Mat Group, founded in 1945. Loomis acquired Via Mat Group in April 2014. Loomis has 23,000 employees in 20 countries. It is quoted on the Swedish stock exchange via its parent company Securitas AB and has over 400 offices worldwide.

Loomis International itself is one of the world’s leading global logistics and storage companies for valuables such as precious metals, banknotes and fine art. Loomis International offers its clients custom-bonded or inland (domestic) storage at high security storage and vaulting facilities in many international locations. Regular audits are undertaken and facilitated by Loomis, and the company operates with comprehensive specialist insurance cover.

GoldCore offers its UK clients long-term precious metals vault storage at four Loomis vault locations Zurich in Switzerland, London, Dublin and Hong Kong. Loomis recently added a high security 600m sq. precious metals vaulting facility in the Kloten area near Zurich international airport.

Loomis is a member of the Association of European Safety Carriers (ESTA), a member of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) and the LBMA in London. In New York, Loomis is NYMEX commodity exchange-authorised for the transportation of precious metals and is a member of the International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI), and the Independent Armored Car Operators Association (IACOC).

GoldCore has partnered with Brink’s to offer GoldCore’s clients secure precious metals storage in its state-of-the-art secure vaults in Singapore.

Brink’s is one of the largest and best-known security companies in the world, providing a range of security services including armoured transport and logistics, and precious metals vaulting facilities. Founded in 1859 in the U.S., Brink’s employs over 70,000 people in over 100 countries.

Brink’s is synonymous with the security industry. It is involved in precious metals vaulting and transport, other secure transportation, cash handling for banks, and a variety of corporate security operations.

In the provision of precious metals services, Brink’s provides services throughout the gold and silver supply chains, moving precious metals on behalf of miners, central banks, and other participants in the global gold market, and weighing, assaying and storing gold and silver on behalf of its clients.

Brink’s operates high security precious metals vaults in a number of cities around the world. In Asia, Brink’s maintain precious metals vaults in Singapore and Hong Kong, while in Australia Brink’s operates a precious metals vault in Melbourne.

The company maintains metals vaults in New York City, and Salt Lake City, Utah. In New York, Brink’s is the only precious metals storage provider to have been appointed as a Nymex/Comex authorised depository for gold, the other Comex authorised gold depositories being the New York vault facilities of investment banks JP Morgan, HSBC and Scotia Mocatta.

Salt Lake City is home to the giant Johnson Matthey gold and silver refinery, where most newly-minted U.S. gold is processed, hence the Brink’s facility is located nearby.

In Canada, Brink’s also operates two precious metals vaults in Ontario, one of which is in Toronto, again very close to Johnson Matthey’s Canadian gold and silver refinery is in Brampton, just outside Toronto.

In London, Brink’s is a key member of the LBMA, where it operates a number of precious metals vaults near the City, making it the third largest precious metals vaulting provider in the London market behind HSBC and JP Morgan.

As with the other large storage providers, Brink’s precious metals vaults around the world are covered by specialist insurance, so GoldCore’s UK clients can rest assured that their precious metals holdings stored with Brink’s in Singapore are fully insured, securely covered and protected.

Since 2005, GoldCore has partnered with the Perth Mint of Western Australia to offer GoldCore clients access to the Perth Mint’s highly regarded, government backed precious metals certificate programme.

GoldCore is an authorised dealer for the Perth Mint Certificate Programme (PMCP) and the only authorised dealer in the UK and the EU and one of a select few providers of this service internationally. The PMCP allows UK investors, savers and pension funds to own investment grade gold, silver and platinum bullion stored in the vaults of the Perth Mint.

The Perth Mint is fully-owned by the State Government of Western Australia. The company operates Australia’s only gold refinery and also produces legal tender gold and silver coins behalf of the Australian Commonwealth Government, and a range of silver and gold bar products.

The Perth Mint is the trading name of Gold Corporation, which is the successor organisation of the Royal Mint’s Perth branch founded in 1899. The certificate programme is guaranteed by the Government of Western Australia, which has a very high credit rating from credit rating agencies.

The Perth Mint’s precious metals refinery is on the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) good delivery list for both gold and silver good delivery bars, and on the US CME Comex exchange’s approved refinery list for gold bars.

GoldCore has partnered with independent auditor Inspectorate International to audit GoldCore clients’ precious metals inventory stored at GoldCore custodians’ precious metals vaults. On an annual basis, Inspectorate International visit the vaults and conduct physical audits of precious metals holdings. These are then reconciled with the vault’s own records and with our records. UK clients can therefore be reassured that this tri-party auditing procedure is of the highest international standards.

Inspectorate International is one of the leading auditors of vault and storage facilities in the world and auditors the precious metals held by many entities including banks, bullion dealers and investment funds in the world’s largest precious metals vaults. Inspectorate also supervisors the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) good delivery system and is an associate member of the LBMA. Inspectorate also monitors precious metals refineries to ensure that the precious metals that they produce meet the LBMA’s quality standards, or what is called “good delivery status”.

Since it was acquired in 2010, Inspectorate International has been of the Bureau Veritas Commodities Division, which is one of the world’s leading providers of commodities inspection and testing.