Perth Mint achieves two major milestones

The Perth Mint has generated more than $A1 billion in export revenue since it launched the Australian precious metal coin program less than five years ago, in April 1987.

And it has sold more than 50 tonnes of Australian gold in its Australian Nugget 24-carat (99.99 per cent pure) coin.

The Mint's attainment of these two major milestones, which were reached shortly before Christmas, was announced by the Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development Ian Taylor in a ceremony at the Mint today, attended by mining industry representatives and Mint staff.

Mr Taylor described the Australian precious metal coin program as an Australian success story that set an example of how value could be added to Australia's natural resources before export, increasing their value to the nation.

"The success of the international precious metal coin program is proof of what can be achieved by dint of sheer hard work and single-mindedness of purpose even in extraordinarily depressed world markets.  The staff of Gold Corporation are to be congratulated on this outstanding achievement," Mr Taylor said.

The Mint, which is owned by the Western Australian Government and is Australia's specialist precious metals mint, conducts the program by formal agreement with the Commonwealth Government.  Under the agreement, it produced coins in gold (the Australian Nugget), silver (the Australian Kookaburra) and platinum (the Australian Koala), which have legal tender status under Australia's Currency Act, but which are traded internationally for their rarity (proof coins) or for the investment value of the precious metal they contain (bullion coins), not for their nominal face values.

Mr Taylor said the program had been established to generate consumer demand for Australian gold and silver to help support metal prices and to add value to Australian gold and silver which had previously been exported with little value added.

The program's achievements included:

·         sales of more than 4.5 million coins, containing more than 50 tonnes of Australian gold, 27 tonnes of Australian silver and nearly 8 tonnes of imported platinum;

·         export sales revenue of more than $A1 billion, representing more than 88 per cent of total sales;

·         adding more than $83 million or almost eight per cent to the basic value of the metal contained in the coins;

·         clear leadership of the world platinum bullion coin market by the Australian Koala with a market share estimated by the Platinum Guild International at 60 per cent;

·         a 23 per cent share of the world's gold bullion coin market for the Australian Nugget in the first half of 1991, according to the World Gold Council.

Mr Taylor said the Australian Nugget had improved its share of the world gold bullion coin market every year and it was expected that the World Gold Council's full year figures for 1991 would show a further improvement in the Nugget's market share, with it probably moving into the number two position behind Canada's Maple Leaf.  There was even the outside possibility that the Nugget could leap frog the Maple Leaf and become the world's largest selling bullion coin in 1991.

He said this reflected the international success of the Mint's innovative large gold bullion coins introduced last March.

He noted that Gold Corporation, the organisation which operates the Mint for the Western Australian Government, had been among Australia's top 30 exporters every year since the coin program began.

"The program's performance is remarkable because it has been achieved during years in which precious metal investment demand has been poor and precious metal prices have been at cyclical lows," Mr Taylor said.

"This is a tribute to the quality of the products and the innovation and professionalism of the marketing of them," he said.

Gold Corporation's chief executive officer, Don Mackay-Coghill, said the coin programs were now poised to perform very well when precious metal investment markets recovered from their long 'bear' phase, as he believed they would, in the near future.

"Depressed precious metal prices and heavy establishment costs understandably have reduced profitability in the start-up phase, but significantly the program has been in the black in all but its second year and has been established without resort to Government for big capital injections," he said.

"Not only is the program performing an economical role for Australia overseas, but it is playing a promotional role for the nation because our brand names are among the few Australian brands known overseas," Mr Mackay-Coghill said.