China can build its reserves without overtly appearing to do so, by buying in its own gold production, which not only includes mine production, but also output from custom refining, either of gold directly, but also from byproduct gold from its vast base metals refining sector. The mining companies will receive payment for their concentrates which may include a premium for contained gold, but no-one, apart from perhaps the Chinese government, knows exactly how much refined gold is produced from these base metals concentrates - the amount could be quite substantial.
With its announced annual mined production at 314 tonnes last year and expected to be around 320 tonnes in 2010, there could well be another 600 to 650 tonnes or perhaps more, moved into ‘unofficial' reserves, since that last announcement and continuing to absorb its own gold at that rate would mean China's reserves would effectively be doubled by end 2011 to some 2,000 tonnes. This is still well short of the 10,000 tonne target suggested by some Chinese officials, but on its way there, and assumes also that the 1,054 tonnes of reserves announced by the Chinese in April 2009 was indeed the sum total of that country's holding at that time!
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