Gold investors who expected the Indian budget announced on July 10 to include more growth-oriented policies were disappointed when the newly elected government decided to keep the import duty on gold and silver unchanged at 10%.

The World Gold Council said earlier that smuggling would continue rising if import restrictions remained. Their research estimates that 75% of Indian households would either continue or increase their gold buying in 2014.

In four separate incidents spread over two days last month, customs officials arrested six passengers at just one airport who were attempting to smuggle gold into the country. Six kilograms of gold, estimated at $269,239 were confiscated.

Some analysts speculated that the Indian government’s decision to ignore the cries of the bullion industry to lower the duty were related to the fact that gold imports crossed double-digit figures for the first time in Gujarat, the hometown of new Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hmmm…

World Gold Council Hosts Debate on Gold Fix Reform (Mining Weekly)

The World Gold Council (WGC), a market development organization for the gold industry, convened a roundtable debate on Monday to discuss modernization of the London gold fix.

Steps to modernize the London gold fix, a century-old practice that is under scrutiny, follow the planned launch of the kilo-bar gold contract in Singapore, which will be traded transparently on the Singapore Exchange.

The event comes after the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority fined Barclays bank in May for manipulating the London gold fix.

For more on this topic, see last week’s Q&A with the Casey Metals Team.

Palladium Caps Longest Rally in 14 Years as Demand Gains (Bloomberg)

Palladium has gained 22% this year as output slowed during a five-month strike by 70,000 employees in South Africa that ended last month. Auto sales in the US headed for the biggest year since 2007, while retail deliveries of cars, multipurpose, and sport utility vehicles climbed 14% in China last month, the Passenger Car Association said.

Supply will trail demand this year by the most ever after the mining strike, according to London-based Johnson Matthey, which makes a third of the world’s catalytic converters.

“It’s a perfect bullish story, with worries about supplies increasing and demand remaining very buoyant,” said Scott Carter, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based Lear Capital. “There will be some long-lasting damage because of the strike.”

CME and Thomson Reuters take over Silver Fix (LeapRate)

The mandate to operate the London Silver Fix has been awarded to CME Group and Thomson Reuters, when the existing system is disbanded next month.

The two corporations will serve different roles: CME Group will provide the price platform and methodology, and Thomson Reuters will be responsible for administration and governance.

At present, the silver fix is set each day at noon by three large banks—Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and Scotiabank—by way of a daily conference call, conducted by the current operator of the benchmark, London Silver Market Fixing Ltd. Yet, with increased attention from regulators following benchmark manipulation in other markets, the operator said in May it would stop running the daily call, signaling the end of a 117 year old procedure.

Recent News in International Speculator and BIG GOLD—Key Updates for Subscribers

 International Speculator

• One of our Canadian gold explorers increased its indicated gold resource by almost 70%, significantly de-risking the project and becoming an ever-greater acquisition target. Here’s our take on what it means for you.

• One of our favorite exploration teams delivered excellent drill results from its flagship gold-silver project in Colombia—and more positive results are just around the corner. Louis James is on his way back from a site inspection at this very moment, so we’ll have a detailed update in the next issue of International Speculator.

 BIG GOLD

• This silver producer’s production though the first half of the year came in ahead of annual guidance, with impressive increases over last year. The shares are taking a breather from an impressive run up this year, and we’ve updated our guidance.