Perth Mint in record silver coin sales

The Perth Mint has started 2022 with its best month for silver bullion sales in over six years and the second-best month in its history.

In a monthly sales update for January 2022 released today, the mint reported sales of 66,709 troy ounces (oz) of gold and a record 2.4 million ounces of silver in minted product form during the month.

Perth Mint’s manager for general minted products Neil Vance said silver bullion demand was the second highest on record after sales of 3,349,557 oz in September 2015.

“This January we released our 2022 Australian Koala silver bullion coin series and also took first orders for our 1 kilo Lunar Tiger coins,” Mr Vance said in a statement.

“Both releases are globally popular and contributed heavily to an especially pleasing month, which also reflected a build-up of demand during the Christmas and New Year period at the end of 2021.”

The Perth Mint’s ASX-listed ETF, PMGOLD, also recorded strong inflows to start the year.

Total holdings rose by more than 5,000 ounces to reach a new all-time high of 7.74 tonnes.

Manager for listed products and investment research Jordan Eliseo said demand for the precious metals had been supported by volatile equity markets.

“It was a volatile start to the year for precious metals, with gold trading in an almost $US60 oz range between $US1,790 oz on the downside, and $US1,850 oz on the upside,” Mr Eliseo said.

“Demand was supported by the volatility seen in equity markets, which have started the year with a significant pullback, though a strong US dollar, rising bond yields and the expectation of a faster pace of monetary tightening from the US Federal Reserve, acted as headwinds across the month.”

Gold held by clients in the Perth Mint was up marginally by 3 per cent over the last year, while silver holdings fell by 1 per cent.

Since 2018 however, holdings of the two metals have increased by 40 per cent for gold and 15 per cent for silver.