image credit silverdoctors.com
A fire has broken out in the basement gold vault of JPMorgan headquarters on Wall Street. There are over 20 firetrucks, 4 ambulances and scores of firefighters battling the unknown blaze.
One thing is for certain. Precious metals do not burn up…they melt; however, the time necessary to assay and reproduce in kind is astronomical. Many of the gold coins held in safekeeping for others were irreplaceable and can only be reimbursed by insurance. That is a poor substitute for precious antique metals.
Many foreign nations had gold on deposit with JPMorgan and are now going to want to take delivery, and it will be impossible for JPMorgan to comply.
Last week, JPMorgan delivered 600,000 ounces of gold to those who had demanded physical possession, leaving only around 46,000 ounces, the least ever in its history. There is reportedly 502,000 ounces still standing against JP Morgan for June’s gold contract. It’s not a foregone conclusion that JPMorgan might actually go under next week when more delivery demands are made that cannot be filled. It has been common knowledge that JPM has been manipulating the gold (and silver) markets using both paper metals (options, futures, etc.) and the underlying mining stocks (plus the physical metals) to drive the market one way or the other. Most knew that one day it would catch up to them, and catch up to them it did.
Even though precious metals do not burn (just melt), the paperwork from years ago and the computer information that identifies who owns what and where it is kept in relation to the vault do burn. This information is kept in the metals vault as one of the safest places to be. What could cause a fire in a gold vault? The floors cannot be wood, as the weight of the gold would crush them. The vault would have to be completely reinforced steel, and the paperwork and computer information is not enough to spark a massive fire.
This is very intriguing indeed. It will be worth waiting for the NYFD arson squad, if called in, to render their findings.
UPDATE: As originally reported by Investing Channel and seemingly substantiated by an @FDNY Tweet
MAN ALL HANDS 15 BROAD ST, COMMERCIAL FIRE IN A VAULT,
— FDNY (@FDNY) July 20, 2013
Off the Grid News has learned that the actual location of the JP Morgan vault is actually over a half a mile away from the scene of this fire. The JP Morgan gold vault did not catch fire as originally reported by many news agencies. However, this news in no way detracts from the fact that JP Morgan has been manipulating the precious metals markets and that its reserve of actual physical gold is lower than it has ever been in its history.