Bangko Sentral cited for purity of its gold bars

MANILA, Philippines - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) got the recognition and accreditation of the influential London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) for the purity of the gold bars the BSP produces, officials said yesterday.

Monetary Board member Ignacio Bunye said the BSP, which is in charge of refining Philippine gold to be sold to the international market, got the good news of the LBMA last May 28. The BSP has its gold refinery at its Security Plant Complex in Quezon City.

The LBMA periodically certifies a list of refineries around the world that produce good quality gold.

Bunye quoted Dr. Paterson Encabo, deputy director of the BSP department of general services, as saying that the Bank’s gold refinery had passed the LBMA’s “proactive monitoring gold assaying test.”

“The BSP, Encabo said, continues to be included in the LBMA-accredited Good Delivery List (GDL),” Bunye said.

“This means that if we say that our gold has a purity of 99.5 percent, the international market accepts it at face value,” Bunye said quoting Encabo.

More importantly being on the LBMA’s list means that those who buy BSP-refined gold bars trust their quality, he said.

Encabo said the London Gold Market, the precursor of LBMA, first recognized the then Central Bank of the Philippines refinery as an acceptable melter and assayer of “good delivery” bars in September 1979.

Good delivery bars are the final output of the refining process, which involves the separation of gold from other elements such as silver and base metals, and the casting of the refined gold into bars, Bunye said.

He said 1979 was the start of the then Central Bank’s gold refinery’s operations and that the Philippines was then among only three countries in Asia recognized by the London Gold Market.