BSP seals gold buy deal with re-opened Didipio mine

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has secured gold supply from OceanaGold Philippines Inc. as part of efforts to capture local output of the precious metal not only from small-scale miners but also from large-scale operators.

The BSP said a purchase agreement signed recently with the local subsidiary of Australia-based OceanaGold commits the company to sell at least 25 percent of their annual output at fair market prices to the central bank.

The central bank “aims to be the preferred gold buyer of both large- and small-scale miners,” BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said in a statement.

By law, small-scale miners are required to sell their gold output to the BSP, and are prohibited from shipping the precious metal out to foreign buyers.