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Texas Opens Gold Depository

Gold News
First state-administered precious metals depository in U.S. opens.

Texas recently announced the opening of a gold depository in Austin, Texas. The Texas Bullion Depository is owned and operated by the state of Texas but the depository is a private company, Lone Star Tangible Assets.

How it Works

The Texas Bullion Depository allows individuals and institutions to open accounts and deliver gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium to the depository or to bring their metals in personally. While the depository is a private company, investors get the comfort of having Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts oversight. The facility is protected by an on site private armed security team and Texas law enforcement. Lloyd’s of London Insurance Marketplace provides 100% insurance of all account holder assets stored at the depository.

The depository will also test its customers’ precious metals when they open accounts prior to depositing them in segregated storage. The storage fee is 0.5 percent annually of the value of the precious metals on deposit.

The foregoing offers a unique storage opportunity for bullion investors. The Texas Bullion Depository is different than ETFs which trade shares of gold but often do not have redemption features and certainly no ability to inspect the facility. In addition, unlike private depositories, oversight of the Texas Bullion Depository is handled by the state of Texas as is part of the security.

Customer accounts are viewable on an encrypted platform and a full accounting and photographic evidence of depositors’ metals are available.

The Texas Bullion Depository does not buy or sell bullion and its services are available only to United States citizens.

What’s Next?

While the Texas Bullion Depository celebrated its opening this week, the depository is scheduled to move from its 23,000 square foot Austin facility to a building twice its size north of Austin in Leander Texas sometime in 2019.

According to information on the depository’s website future plans include “establishing services for large institutional Depository Account Holders and state agencies to establish accounts with select Depository Agents. We plan to work with banking partners capable of providing COMEX metal positions and high value liquidity for metal holdings stored at the Texas Bullion Depository.”

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This article by BGASC is not, and should not be regarded as, investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular course of action.