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\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Refiles to fix spelling of India in first bullet point) * India gold recycling trade booming as drought hits farmers * Scrap supply expected to hit up to 300 tonnes in 2012 * Fledgling refining sector getting a lift By Siddesh Mayenkar MUMBAI, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Laxmibai Karanure sifts through the heavy bangles and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}(Refiles to fix spelling of India in first bullet point)\n * India gold recycling trade booming as drought hits farmers\n * Scrap supply expected to hit up to 300 tonnes in 2012\n * Fledgling refining sector getting a lift\n\n By Siddesh Mayenkar\n MUMBAI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Laxmibai Karanure sifts through\nthe heavy bangles and necklaces that make up her life savings,\nworking out which pieces to sell from the 100 grams of gold she\nholds to tide her family over during the drought at their farm.\n The 55-year-old Karanure's heirlooms will add to a booming\nrecycling trade, which could account for up to half of India's\nconsumption this year and boost a fledgling refining industry.\n The surge in recycling also comes as India looks set to be\novertaken by China as the world's biggest consumer of gold,\nafter a hike in import duties in March and a rapidly weakening\nrupee pushed local gold prices to record highs.\n The potential for recycling is huge with India's 1.2 billion\npeople estimated to have stored up about 20,000 tonnes of gold\nin the form of jewellery, coins and bars, according to an\nestimate from industry body the World Gold Council -- about\nthree times the holdings of the U.S. Federal Reserve.\n \"We have no other option but to sell our gold in these tough\ntimes,\" said Karanure, speaking from her village in Chikkodi in\nthe southwest Indian state of Karnataka.\n She could get nearly 150,000 Indian rupees ($2,800) from the\nsale of her bangles and necklaces, a vital source of income\nafter drought this year has slashed rural incomes.\n The Bombay Bullion Association (BBA) estimates the supply of\nrecycled gold in India will hit 300 tonnes in 2012, up about\nfive-fold from 2011 and the highest in more than a decade.\n \n \"There won't be new demand from farmers and scrap will flow\nin the market,\" said Prithviraj Kothari, president of the BBA,\nmade up of 400 bullion dealers and traders. \"In coming years, 50\npercent of the requirements will be met through scrap.\"\n Other traders and analysts agreed. Harshad Ajmera of\nKolkata-based JJ Gold House estimates scrap supply at 200 tonnes\nthis year. \n \n CROPS FAIL \n India's scrap market in 2011 was only 58.5 tonnes, or 6\npercent of total gold demand of 969 tonnes, but it is being\nboosted as consumers baulk against paying a 4 percent import tax\nand with the local price of gold near a record high of 32,421\nrupees per 10 grams.\n Farmers in India are the biggest buyers of gold which they\nuse as savings in the absence of a functional bank network. \n This year, because of a drought in parts of the country,\nthey are having to cash in gold to pay off loans taken out to\npurchase fertiliser and seeds, which have in many areas failed\nto produce a crop. \n The hoarded bangles and rings are melted down to rejoin the\nbullion market in new designs of jewellery or bars and coins --\nand that is bringing extra work to refiners.\n \n REFINERS\n The BBA estimates refining capacity is currently at about\n100 tonnes a year in India, which for decades has relied on\nimports from South Africa, Australia, and Switzerland for most\nof its requirements.\n Much is done with simple machines in the back of\nfamily-owned shops in gold markets such as Zaveri Bazaar in\nMumbai.\n But bigger refiners plan to expand.\n Harmesh Arora, director at the National Indian Bullion\nRefinery in Mumbai, said the firm is planning to expand capacity\nfrom the current 30 tonnes per year without elaborating.\n Further expansion of the refining industry in India will\nemerge only after there is more readily available supply of\ndores, a crude form of gold recovered from mines which is often\nused by foreign refineries, he said. \n Industry officials are also calling on the government to\nprovide incentives to local refiners through special loans for\nexpansion and to restrict coin imports by banks. \n ($1=53.23 Indian rupees)\n\n (Additional reporting by Rujun Shen in SINGAPORE; Editing by Ed\nDavies)<\/pre>\n