Gold Rush in Ohio? Small Town Plays Big Role

Building contractor Alan Stockmeister is known around town for his stewardship of local businesses: radio stations, a movie theater and a bank, for example. But nothing has been quite like his refinery just off Main Street, which has become an outpost in the multibillion-dollar global gold trade.
Ohio Precious Metals LLC owns one of five refineries in the U.S.—there are 73 world-wide—certified to melt scrap gold and pour it into ingots that can be traded on global markets. OPM’s more than 170 workers process several billion dollars a year in gold and silver headed for banks and jewelers in New York, London and Shanghai.
“Historically, gold refineries have been near production sites, mines or the big financial centers where gold is traded,” says David Jollie, a London-based analyst at gold trader Mitsui Precious Metals. Ohio “is not really one of those places.”
OPM has been able to stay in south-central Ohio in part because gold prices, while 30% below their 2011 peak, are about triple what they were in 2004. Sales of gold to make rings, watches and electronics have increased 70% over the last 10 years, according to Thomson Reuters GFMS. Recent price declines mean that gold production at mines hasn’t kept pace, in turn fueling demand for cheaper-to-produce gold scrap.

This post was published at Wall Street Journal