Reuters reported that the world's biggest gold refiner, South Africa's Rand Refinery is considering setting up a refining plant in China within 2 to 3 years joining hands with a local partner on its first such plant abroad.
A senior executive said that Rand is targeting Asia, home to the world's top two gold consumers, China and India, as a key region for future development. It expects to complete a sampling and assaying facility in Singapore by the end of the year.
Mr Peter Bouwer chief strategy officer at Rand said that "During the past year, we have identified one or two possible opportunities to partner for a potential initial refinery footprint in China."
He said that the plan was at a very early stage. The lack of high purity gold refining capacity in China poses an opportunity for Rand. China already has huge refining capacity, both in a handful of large scale refiners listed with the LBMA and a huge number of small or micro scale refiners.
The challenge facing especially the smaller refineries is the technology and experience to produce high purity gold, e.g. 999.9%. High purity gold is keenly sought for use in jewellery, which accounted for two thirds of China's gold demand in the first 9 months of this year.
