It’s ironic that India, where literally millions of people live in conditions of abject poverty, has what is believed to be one of the largest gold hoards in the world.
India itself actually produces only about 100,000 ounces of gold a year from its mines (equal to the output of just one good- sized Canadian mine), but its hoard of the yellow metal, contained in jewelry and other ornaments, is said to amount to some 7,000 tonnes, or about 224 million ounces. That hoard, for instance, is more than ten times the gold production for all of 1987 in South Africa, the world’s biggest gold producer, which in that year produced some 655 tonnes. And it’s about 60 times the amount of gold expected to have been produced in all of Canada’s mines in that same year.
And even while the government of India bans imports of gold, it’s believed that up to 200 tonnes are smuggled into the country every year.
Gold is undoubtedly king in India, and much of that huge gold hoard is accounted for by the wealthier classes’ need for it in jewelry and other ornaments adorning such social events as the literally millions of weddings occurring each year.
Just another paradox, with little comfort where it mocks.
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