Venezuela has defaulted on a gold swap agreement valued at $750 million with Deutsche Bank, prompting the lender to take control of the precious metal which was used as collateral.
The Bank of Russia made the change to its pricing policy this year, saying it would buy from dealers at a level slightly below the benchmark London gold price.
Unable to get funding from lenders like the IMF since defaulting on its debt in 1999, Zimbabwe has over the last five years relied on the African Export and Import Bank for mineral-backed loans
The new government intends to look into establishing a mining tax and analyzing the possibility of taxing capital gains from the sale of mining rights.