History and mission of the World Gold Council
The World Gold Council (www.gold.org) is a global organisation with about 100 employees in seven offices around the world. It was founded in 1987 by leading gold mining companies. The purpose of founding the World Gold Council was and still is today to stimulate and sustain demand for gold. The World Gold Council calls itself the “market development organisation for the gold industry”.
The Gold Council works in four sectors to achieve this aim:
- The Investment sector, which covers private and institutional investors
- The Jewellery sector
- The Technology sector
- The Official sector, which stimulates demand from governments and central banks
Members of the World Gold Council
The World Gold Council has 22 members. The members are gold mining companies that represent approximately 60% of the annual global gold production.
As of November 2011, the members of the World Gold Council generated more than US-Dollar 40 billion in annual revenues and had a combined market capitalization of over US-Dollars 200 billion.
The current members of the World Gold Council are:
- African Barrick
- Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd
- Alamos Gold Inc.
- AngloGold Ashanti
- Barrick Gold Corp.
- Buenaventura
- Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation
- Eldorado Gold Corporation
- Franco-Nevada Corporation
- Goldcorp Inc.
- Golden Star Resources Ltd
- Gold Fields Limited
- IAMGOLD Corporation
- Kinross Gold Corporation
- New Gold Inc.
- Newmont Mining Corporation
- Primero Mining Corporation
- Yamana Gold Inc.
The World Gold Council’s board of directors is mainly comprised of the chairmen or Chief Executive Officers of the member companies.
The World Gold Council’s activities in the investment sector
In the investment sector, the World Gold Council aims at stimulating and sustaining the demand for gold as an investment. The World Gold Council’s activities in the investment sector can be summarized as following:
- Provide gold investment research
- Market gold as an asset class
- Partner with financial services institutions to develop new gold investment channels and launch gold investment products
Since its inception, the Gold Council has established partnerships to make gold more accessible for private and institutional investors.
For more than 30 years, the World Gold Council has partnered with Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. – the largest bullion house in Japan – to promote gold coins and so-called Gold Accumulation Plans. The Gold Accumulation Plan was first introduced by Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo in 1980. The Gold Accumulation Plan was widely promoted at regional banks all over Japan. In 2006 there were more than 200 tonnes of gold accumulated in Gold Accumulation Plans. The World Gold Council also works with Mitsubishi Corporation – the largest general trading house in Japan – to promote its Gold Accumulation Plans to retail customers.
In 2010 the World Gold entered a cooperation with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to jointly launch a Gold Accumulation Plan in China. In 2011 ICBC had already more than 2 million customers with Gold Accumulation Plans.
In 2003/2004, the World Gold Council partnered with State Street Global to develop and launch gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETF). Today close to US-Dollar 90 billion are held in ETF and Exchange Traded Commodities (ETC) that are supported by the World Gold Council. More information on Exchange Traded Gold.
In 2010, the World Gold Council acquired an equity stake in BullionVault, a leading platform for purchasing and trading gold aimed at private investors. See BullionVault’s profile for more information.