Rising global geopolitical tensions and persistent financial market concerns see strong demand for gold as a safe haven commodity. This is good news for Silk Route Gold (SRG), one of the country’s top precious metal’s refiners, which is pushing the boundary to create innovative and cutting-edge customised offerings, SRG Director Tania McKay and Manager, Tanur McKay, tell Modern Mining.
“Gold continues to offer one of the best investment cases, appreciating between seven to thirteen percent per annum,” Tanur says. To remain ahead in the highly competitive market, SRG is creating a line-up of products to tantalise the appetite for new luxury goods, which include– a rhodium coin and a multi-metal coin – both set to be launched later this year.
Demand for SRG’s one-of-its-kind luxury pieces is on the rise, says Tanur, a creative manager with a plethora of novel ideas, who is passionate about interspersing the company’s existing collection with novel items for its well-heeled clients.
The East Rand-based company offers bespoke handcrafted precious metals jewellery, investment coins and bars. “Essentially, SRG is a full-service business for all your precious metal needs,” says Tania.
Established in 2013, SRG is a competitive jewellery manufacturer, refiner and minter, catering to its competitors by refining their ‘sweeps’ and to public and private clients.
Designing fresh innovative products
The company specialises in processing responsibly sourced precious metals, including gold, silver and the basket of platinum group metals (PGMs) consisting of platinum, palladium rhodium, ruthenium and iridium. Rhodium, the rarest and most valuable of the precious metals, is four times more valuable than gold.
Having worked with gold, silver and platinum for over a decade, SRG’s strategy is to expand its focus to other metals in the PGM basket, namely palladium and rhodium.
South Africa possesses 80% of the world’s platinum group metals reserves and is the world’s largest producer of PGMs, accounting for close to 60% of global production, which is all the more reason for local refiners to be pushing the creative boundary to develop exotic luxury goods for the international market, says Tanur.
“There exists a massive gap in the market for the local industry to produce novel items crafted from the basket of PGMs for the export market. As precious metals refiners, our focus is to use what is locally produced to design and manufacture high-end luxury goods for the world market.”
Although rhodium coins are produced internationally, SRG, which is targeting affluent customers and investors, is one of few minters producing rhodium coins locally. Rhodium is currently trading at R2 590 per gram, making it a prized gift or investment option.
In tandem with producing a rhodium coin, SRG has engineered a technique for creating a stunning multi-metal coin – an offering which infuses different precious metals, such as rose-gold, gold or white gold with silver and PGMs.
“Each multi-metal coin is unique because it is melded with varying quantities of different precious metals with each infusion producing a one-of-a-kind pattern. No two coins are alike – and in a world of mass production, owning a piece of jewellery that is unique is highly valued.”
Interestingly, a benefit associated with producing a multi-metal coin, is the speed at which the coin can be processed, going directly from refining to minting.
“One of the biggest challenges associated with manufacturing luxury pieces,” Tanur explains, “is the legal implications of meeting the exact weight for each coin or bar and, as refiners, we overcompensate, which over time means a significant loss in revenue. However, the casting of multi-metal coins circumvents the restrictive process and allows the refiner to achieve economies of scale.”
Given the novelty of the rhodium and multi-metal coins, these collector’s items will retail at a premium price.
“We will offer a limited series and anticipate that investors and collectors alike will clamour for one of these exotic items of luxury. I foresee robust interest from both local and international investors for our trendy luxury goods,” says Tanur.
Both the rhodium and multi-metal coins are expected to make a spectacular splash at a launch later this year.
And for those requiring more bling, SRG embeds precious stones, such as rubies, emeralds and sapphires, to further enhance luxury items.
Bespoke luxury goods
Apart from mass produced jewellery, SRG manufactures customised jewellery for a market that is growing in leaps and bounds, Tanur explains
“We offer bold design ideas and manufacture customised luxury goods as required by our clientele, including items as unusual as an actual gold credit card, which was requested by a regular client. He was extremely pleased with the one-ounce prototype and subsequently ordered three more gold credit cards. In addition to customised products, we tailor make precious metal items in 2D and 3D with engravings and logos, amongst others, and export to international clients, including to jewellers in Antwerp, Belgium.”
More recently, SRG supplied major brewer, South African Breweries (SAB), with 50 gold coins each weighing 54.65 grams for winners of a competition.
“We instituted a buy-back policy for the 50 designer gold coins for SAB winners. Forty-nine winners sold the coins immediately back to us, barring one who traded his coin a few months later, scoring 30% more on the item.”
SRG has also established a strong relationship with American artist David Case, who requires a replication of his hand designed imprints to be transferred to coins.
“About five years ago, Case approached SRG to mint replicas of intricate hand drawn images he wanted imprinted onto silver coins, which were to be sold as a set with his artwork. To date, we have produced over 350 silver imprinted coins for Case’s collection.”
The artist, who ranks among the world’s top artists, has requested to have his next set of designs crafted onto multi metal coins.
Certificate of authentication
SRG strives to provide its clients with certainty of quality and all precious metal items have a certificate of authentication.
“Our raw materials are responsibly sourced and processed, in line with the highest social and environmental standards,” says Tanur. “We go so far as to visit each mining operation to ensure that the route from raw material to finished product is ethically sourced and produced. Each luxury item sold is accompanied by a certificate of authentication, which allows the buyer to trace the product from source to end-product.”
