Experts who participated in the two-day seminar held by the Indian Bullion and Jewelers Association (IBJA) agreed that a country whose population has gold reserves with a total mass of about 25,000 tons is it requires more refineries to monetize and attract foreign direct investment.
India is the largest consumer of gold and annually imports about 600 - 900 tons of this metal, which accounts for about 25% of its global production. Raw materials for the industry are obtained by melting down old jewelry, supplied by jewelry stores, as well as specialized gold loan companies that sell the pledged property of debtors.
Remelting of gold scrap is carried out by affiliated enterprises of small and medium business, as well as by hundreds of private small-scale industries. The only refinery in the country accredited by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) is MMTC-PAMP, a joint venture of the Indian state MMTC and the Swiss PAMP SA.
"The population of India has about 25 thousand tons of gold in its hands, which it is necessary to monetize, even if the task is to monetize 1% of the gold available to the population, its mass will be 250 tons, and MMTC-PAMP alone can not cope with this volume. Therefore, in India, with funds that can be obtained through foreign direct investment, it is necessary to build more refineries of world class, "said Rajesh Khosla, Managing Director of MMTC-PAMP.
According to him, it is also necessary to ensure the access of foreign direct investment to all levels of the jewelry industry, including jewelry retail.