Hurricane Irma could lead to much higher gold and silver prices as storm could have severe effects for U.S. metal refiners

Over the past month the gold and silver markets have experienced a boon in prices due to geo-political events occurring over North Korea, and internal conflicts over the potential of a new government shutdown due to Congress's inability to deal with the upcoming debt ceiling.  However, there may be a new and potentially more destructive catalyst on the horizon for gold and silver, and it is intrinsically tied to what happens should Hurricane Irma reach the Florida coast. 

Hurricane Irma could be temporarily devastating to physical gold & silver supplies. We’re not talking about panic buying either, that won’t come until later. This is about immediate concerns for refining, storage, importing/exporting, vaulting, transportation and logistics… 

First the good news: There is plenty of gold and silver right now available for purchase at great prices. 

The bad news is that under the radar, however, Irma could literally cause short term devastation to the physical supply of gold & silver.
Over the past three decades, all of Florida, and especially Miami and the entire eastern coast, has become a booming area for precious metal refiners. 

Last year (2013)— for the first time — gold was both the top import and export from the Miami Customs District, which includes airports and seaports from Palm Beach County to Key West. But the reality is most of the gold entered and left via Miami International Airport. 

More gold arrived in Miami than any other U.S. customs district last year and it ranked third in outbound shipments of gold. The most common routes take the glittery metal from mines in Colombia, Mexico, Bolivia and Peru and the gold trading center of Curacao, to Miami and then on to Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the Dominican Republic. 

South Florida is home to not only one of the largest precious metal refineries in North America — Republic Metals Corp. in Opa-locka — but it’s also a hub for bullion trading as well as assaying, refining, logistics and financing operations. – Silver Doctors

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