Valcambi
| Valcambi SA | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1961 |
| Seat | Balerna , Switzerland |
| management | Michael Mesaric ( CEO ) Thomas Mahoney ( Chairman of the Board of Directors ) |
| Number of employees | 230 (2013) |
| sales | $ 154 million (2013) |
| Branch | Refinery |
| Website | www.valcambi.com |
The Valcambi SA , based in Balerna is an international refinery from Switzerland . The company refines gold , silver , platinum and palladium and produces various bars , coins and medals as well as semi-finished products for the jewelry and watch industry . Valcambi currently employs around 230 people and in 2006 generated sales of around 145 million Swiss francs.
history
The company was founded in 1961. In 1967, the then Schweizerische Kreditanstalt took over an 80 percent majority stake, which it increased to 100 percent in 1980. In 1967 Valcambi gold bars were admitted to the LBMA . In 1972 the accreditation for silver bars followed and in 1997 the approval for platinum and palladium bars followed. Most of the bars produced between 1967 and 2003 bore the Credit Suisse emblem and were distributed by them. In 1967, Valcambi was the first accredited refinery to produce 1 kilogram of gold bars using the minting process.
In 2003 the Credit Suisse Group withdrew from the precious metals business and Valcambi was sold to the newly founded European Gold Refineries Holding SA (EGR) based in Balerna. Until 2015, the majority of shares in EGR (60.6%) was held by the US Newmont Mining Corporation. The remaining 39.4% belonged to private investors (including the original company founders from the Canton of Ticino ).
In July 2015, the Indian gold and diamond jewelry manufacturer Rajesh Exports announced the acquisition of 100% of the shares in Valcambi via a subsidiary in Singapore. For this purpose, a new subsidiary in Switzerland, Global Gold Refineries , was founded. The $ 400 million acquisition was funded in part by a long-term loan from Credit Suisse. According to an announcement from Rajesh Exports, Valcambi is the world's largest gold refinery at the time of the takeover and exclusively produces all of Credit Suisse's gold bars.
criticism
In September 2015, the Swiss NGO Declaration of Bern reported that Valcambi receives several tons a year from Togo , which is not itself a gold-mining country. According to EvB research, this gold is mined in non-industrially operated gold mines in Burkina Faso . Here children and adults worked under “most precarious conditions” and in disregard of environmental standards . The gold is illegally brought to Togo by smugglers, which means that the state of Burkina Faso is also defrauded of tax revenues in the millions. This practice contradicts Valcambi's own ethical standards, and the Swiss authorities have so far shown no interest in a more detailed investigation.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Valcambi SA - company data ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Financials Information for Valcambi SA
- ↑ Gold Bars Worldwide: Company portrait Valcambi SA (PDF, as of 2012; 299 kB) (English)
- ↑ Gold Bars Worldwide: 1-kilogram gold bars from Valcambi SA (PDF, as of 2013; 85 kB) (English)
- ↑ Valcambi.com - corporate structure ( Memento of the original from July 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Notification of the takeover ( memento of the original dated September 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the news page ( memento of the original from September 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Rajesh Exports and in the company profile ( memento of the original from August 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from Valcambi
- ↑ Report of the Bern Declaration on gold production in Burkina Faso and purchase by Valcambi via Togo
- ↑ site about ethical standards of Valcambi
