JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa has lost its gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) base to the UK.

Absa Capital, the investment banking division of the Barclays-controlled Absa Bank, said on Tuesday that that the issuer of the NewGold ETF, NewGold Issuer Limited, had appointed Brink's Limited of the UK as the safe-custody custodian of NewGold's gold bullion holdings, taking over from the Rand Refinery of Germiston.

Absa Capital cited the reason for the change as "the limitation in the safe custody capacity of the previous custodian", in light of significant increase in NewGold's holdings of gold and the predicted continued growth of such holdings. No direct reference was made to Rand Refinery, the custodian from the outset.

The bank said that NewGold was South Africa's largest ETF with R8,7-billion under management.

NewGold's gold bullion had, it added, been transported to the "safe vault premises of Brink's in England", where they had assumed physical control of the gold bullion with effect from February 16, 2009.

Brink's, the bank said, was a global leader in business and security services serving banks, retailers, governments, mines, refiners, metal traders, diamantaires and jewellers through more than 800 facilities in 50 countries on six continents.

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