Gold Digger: Just feast your eyes on this giant nugget from the Beta Hunt mine

• TSX listed Korara Resources finds another massive nugget stash at the Beta Hunt mine near Kalgoorlie
• The new discovery just below the super-rich, 30,000oz Fathers Day Vein
• China imported more than 80 tons (or 2.56Moz) of gold worth $US4.4bn from Switzerland in July; a 6 year record

Our Gold Digger column wraps all the news driving ASX stocks with exposure to precious metals.

MASSIVE. Let’s look at it again:

The nugg was part of new, accidental high-grade discovery at the Beta Hunt mine near Kalgoorlie.

Importantly, it is just below the well-known “Fathers Day Vein” discovery originally announced in September 2018 that yielded ~30,000 ounces of gold from a structure just 10m long.

These high grade gold bags don’t come along very often. Fathers Day would ultimately launch Karora into profitability, the company says.

“Although it is too early to estimate the potential size of the new coarse gold occurrence, it is a very positive development as the area was exposed during normal mine development and this additional high-grade mineralization is not included in our Mineral Resource and is a bonus to normal mine production, which serves to lower costs and increase production,” it says.

“…not included in our Mineral Resource and is a bonus to normal mine production“. Happy days.

Karora is aiming for 185,000-205,000 ounces per annum by 2024 at its integrated Beta Hunt mine and Higginsville Gold Operations (HGO).

China is importing a record amount of gold

Much of the world’s gold production touches Swiss soil.

The central European country is the world’s biggest gold refiner – four of the biggest refineries are Swiss – which also makes it the largest importer and exporter.

Its export data is often used to gauge which countries are buying gold, and how much.

While Swiss gold imports last month were 157t — broadly in line with the totals from May and June – it exported over total 200 tonnes of Swiss gold in July, the highest monthly total since December 2016 (297t).

“A 147% jump in exports to China was the main driver, but significant increases were seen in most major markets,” says World Gold Council analyst Krishan Gopaul in a tweet.

Here is a longer term view of monthly total Swiss #gold exports. pic.twitter.com/aHOK9qiK75

— Krishan Gopaul (@KrishanGopaul) August 18, 2022

All up, China shipped in more than 80 tons (or 2.56Moz) of gold worth $US4.4bn from Switzerland in July – a ~6-year record, and the second highest since 2012.

Chinese gold ETF holdings also saw their largest inflows since April 2020, according to The World Gold Council.

Why is China loving gold so much?

“First, the CSI300 stock index (the top 300 stocks on the Shanghai/Shenzen stock exchanges) plummeted by 8% in July, its worst month since October 2018, leading to higher safe-haven demand,” says Ray Jia, senior analyst China at the World Gold Council.

The Chinese economy more generally isn’t looking crash hot.

It is times of “institutional unrest” like these that Tom Luongo, author of the Gold, Goats ‘n Guns newsletter, advocates investors look at, er, gold, goats, and guns as assets for their portfolio.

Are gold, goats, and guns ‘insurance’ against the coming ‘collapse’? – T… https://t.co/mnefeB3vgJ @KitcoNewsNOW asks the expert.. they thought that was me

— Tom Luongo (#YooVilEetZeBugz) (@TFL1728) August 18, 2022

Secondly, some COVID lockdown restrictions were lifted, which could have sparked additional demand.

And third – “the local gold price stabilised after a steep fall in June, attracting long-term gold investors to enter the market or increase their holdings at lower costs,” Ray Jia says.

People tend to buy when prices fall, funnily enough.

Winners & Losers

Here’s how ASX-listed precious metals stocks are performing:

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort. Best viewed on a laptop.

Stocks missing from this list? Email [email protected]