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Comment by richardw

4 hours ago

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50134694 Since you two seems to disagree. Unless it’s a case of different volumes needing different transport.

The linked article title says “flown” but that could be expressive; is there any definitive evidence of the actual transport mechanism?

  • I’ve found a few references for air but none for recent (2022-2026) sea movements yet. This article talks about illicit gold concentrates moving by sea but notes:

    “In focussing almost exclusively on gold bars, jewellery, and high-grade recycled gold (over 40% purity), all of which generally travel by air, analysts have tended to disregard the maritime space as a significant arena for illicit gold flows (LBMA, 2022[9]).”

    https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/illicit-flows-of-gold-c...

    The Hong Kong gold vault stores at the airport, not the harbour:

    “ Half of the world’s population, including those of China and India, lives and can be reached within five hours if the metal is loaded on a plane and sent from the Hong Kong airport”

    https://www.lbma.org.uk/alchemist/issue-67/gold-vault-at-the...

  • No; but the volumes are tiny and the cost of freight is not very high. If I were talking about moving gold I would expect it to be flown because the risk of piracy would be too high. It is easier to plan, secure and monitor a flight.