FAQs

Are bars of sizes other than 400 ounces for gold and 1000 ounces for silver that have been produced by a refiner on the Good Delivery List also considered London Good Delivery?

The weight of bars must fall within the range specified in the Good Delivery Rules. Bars such as kilobars, 100-ounce and smaller bars are not acceptable in the London market, (though they may be in other markets or exchanges).  For further details on kilobars produced by GDL refiners visit www.goldbarsworldwide.com

How long must a refiner be in business before it is eligible to apply for Good Delivery status?

The company should have been in business for five years and the refinery should
have an operating history of three years.

Is there a minium requirement for a company's net worth in order to apply for Good Delivery?

Yes, It should be at least the equivalent of £15 million.

What is the average length of time from the submission of an application to achieving Good Delivery status?

This varies depending on how quickly the company is able to provide any additional information that may have been missing from its initial application and how long it takes to provide the sample bars following successful completion of the assay test. Delays may also be encountered in the shipping of samples and the payment of fees which will lengthen the overall application procedure. The minimum timescale from the submission of a complete application to accreditation is approximately four months but an average of approximately 6 months is more likely.

What is the Former List?

The former list includes refiners and the bars which are no longer considered to be acceptable in the London Bullion Market.

What are some of the reasons that a refiner might be transferred to the Former List?

There are a number of separate cases, which can relate either to a particular bar (as determined by its dimensions and/or marks) or to a particular refinery. A refinery may be transferred to the Former List if: 

• Its ownership has changed and the new owners are unable to provide 
  satisfactory evidence of their bona fides
• It requests to be removed (for instance because it does not wish to pay the annual maintenance fee
• It ceases production
• Its tangible net worth falls consistently below the LBMA minimum of £15 million
• Its production of refined metal falls consistently below the minima specified by the LBMA (10 tonnes pa for gold and 50 tonnes pa for silver)
• It fails to maintain the technical standards shown in the LBMA's Good Delivery Rules
• It does not respond adequately to justifiable customer complaints

A previously registered bar (as defined by its dimensions and marks) may be transferred to the Former List for one or more of the reasons listed below, while the refiner continues to be listed but with a modified bar.

• The form or dimensions of the bar do not meet current requirements
• The marks on the bars have been modified. For instance, a company may change from a portrait to a landscape format. Other reasons for such changes include rebranding by the company (eg using a new logo) or a change of ownership (ie a new name).

Once a refiner is transferred to the Former List, are the bars that it produced while on the Good Delivery List still considered Good Delivery?

Yes.

What steps might the LBMA take if it received complaints about the quality of bars produced by a refiner?

The LBMA would investigate the complaint, if necessary including an examination the bars and if the complaint appeared justified it would write to the refiner asking it to "stand behind" its bars by making appropriate restitution to the customer.

Information on Bar Numbers for Russian and Uzbek Bars

The common approach adopted by LBMA Good Delivery refiners in Russia and Uzbekistan is to use a 4 digit bar number plus a 2-Cyrillic letter code (which changes with each resetting of the bar number to 0001) and a separate 4-digit year code. The combination of the company's brand mark, the two Cyrillic letter code and the 4-digit bar number provides a unique identifier for every bar.
Some London vaults have used the nearest Roman equivalent to the two Cyrillic characters as part of the bar number. These provide a unique identifier and such bar numbers will continue to be used as bars move within the London vaulting system.
But other vaults have ignored the Cyrillic letters when recording the bars in their information systems. This can result in the same 4-digit bar numbers appearing more than once in bar lists (though each of them has a different Cyrillic code).
In order to avoid this apparent duplication, LBMA vaults will, from February 2010, record such bars with an 8-10 digit bar number formed from the 4-digit year concatenated with the 4-digit bar number and the vault manager may also additionally include a maximum of two alpha characters being the Roman equivalent of the Cyrillic characters shown on the bar.
Occasionally older bars with Cyrillic letter codes but no year marks arrive in London. In such cases, the receiving vault should use the nearest Roman equivalent to the Cyrillic characters as the first characters of the bar number.