Texas Plans (Hopes) to Launch Its Own Gold Bullion Depository

Texas plans to launch an official state gold bullion depository, the first state-level facility of its kind in the nation, to increase the security and stability of its gold reserves and keep taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside the state…

The copy above and below consists of edited excerpts from the original article* written by Aman Batheja (texastribune.org).

• Texas Precious Metals, which runs a private bullion depository in Shiner, Texas proposes the construction of a 46,000+ square foot independent depository… with 12-inch-thick reinforced concrete walls and a roof designed to “withstand the weight of a Boeing 767”…and has suggested that the depository could serve as “a unique alternative to the federal monetary system” in the event of a banking crisis.
• Brink’s has argued that the state doesn’t need to build anything to launch its depository stating that “Brink’s has several secure branch locations in the State of Texas so we would look to utilize existing facilities to provide the vault storage services.”
• Anthem Vault of Las Vegas proposed “multiple vaulting locations throughout Texas to enable all Texans access to their bullion within a reasonable distance from their homes.” The company also offered to set up a network of “coin shops and retail storefronts” to accept deposits on behalf of the state depository.
• GoldMoney, based in Toronto, suggested in its proposal that Texas “develop a legal strategy to defend its constitutional monetary rights and obligations. Any attempt by the federal government to tax gold bullion within the Texas Bullion Depository would, as is the case with confiscation, effectively nullify Texas’s constitutional monetary obligations.”

Hegar’s office is still evaluating the responses…but, eventually, the agency is expected to issue a formal solicitation for bids on the project, detailing more fully what the state envisions.

Along with ideas on the depository’s design, Hegar has requested thoughts on whether the state should vie for membership in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s COMEX platform, where gold futures contracts are traded. The question is crucial to whether Texas will be able to achieve a widely reported declaration by Abbott’s office in June that Texas would “repatriate $1 billion of gold bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to Texas.”

• Loomis International of Switzerland wrote that they were skeptical that the Texas depository could ever gain membership in COMEX…unless the State of Texas could make provisions an exception…
• Dillon Gage of Addison, which runs private precious metal depositories in Delaware and Toronto, noted that CME membership would give the Texas depository a “certain reputational weight” and predicted that the CME would likely waive its geographic restrictions “for a state-run depository.”
• Delaware Depository, a precious metals dealer, wrote. “The State of Texas should carefully consider the consequences of moving the gold bullion to Texas. The cost of relocation, internal cost of storage, and negative impact on liquidity may greatly exceed the storage savings.”
• Malca-Amit, a Hong Kong-based logistics and storage firm, offered through its U.S. subsidiary a possible compromise stating that “Should the state of Texas wish to establish a COMEX gold vault, in order to expedite the process, Malca-Amit would happily operate that vault within NYC on behalf of Texas” although Texas lawmakers aren’t likely to welcome it.