Switzerland refiners purify $103 bln worth of Gold in 2011

ZURICH (Scrap Monster): Switzerland refiners purified  2600 metric tons of raw gold worth  $103 bln last year. Switzerland is the only country that regulate gold purity by law.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the gold output from all the mines in the world in 2011 amounted to 2,700 metric tons.

From the country's  four giant companies, more than eighty percent of the world’s refined gold is generated. Over the last ten years  mining have  more than doubled in Switzerland and the  quantity refined  in 2011 was a record. The data does not include the gold that transits through Swiss free ports. 

Physical  transition of most  of the gold produced in the world is done through  Switzerland,  particularly Ticino. In- house assayers are employed by the state in every refinery to  guarantee the purity of its gold in storage or manufacture.

In an average year, Switzerland refines about 70 per cent of world gold, says Frédéric Panizzutti, spokesman of MKS (Switzerland) SA, a Geneva-based company, which specialises in gold trading and which owns the Pamp refinery in Castel San Pietro, Ticino.

To have an ingot refined in Switzerland is a guarantee of quality anywhere you go, says analyst.Gold is refined in accordance with the rule of four nines or 99.99 per cent which is an exceptional grade of purity in Switzerland.