Physical gold bars.
Direct from Africa.
Below international spot.

Physical gold vs paper gold

Gold ETFs, futures contracts, and unallocated bank accounts all provide exposure to the gold price, but they carry a counterparty: the fund, the exchange, the bank. In a systemic stress event — the kind of scenario for which many institutional buyers hold gold in the first place — those counterparties are precisely the entities whose solvency is in question. Physical bullion in your custody carries no counterparty. The metal is the asset. There is no issuer who can default.

The practical case for physical: it cannot be rehypothecated without your knowledge, it holds value across currency crises (as holders of USD, EUR, and MYR-denominated physical gold in 2020–2022 observed), and it incurs no annual management fee. A gold ETF charging 40 basis points per year silently costs the holder roughly 2% of their position over five years in fees alone, before any tax or spread consideration.

The real costs of physical are known and manageable: storage, insurance, and delivery logistics. A specialist carrier charges approximately USD 2,000–5,000 to move a 10kg lot internationally. A licensed vault charges annual custody fees typically in the range of 0.1–0.15% of metal value. For an institutional buyer with existing vault infrastructure, the incremental cost of adding a 10kg bar to custody is minimal. The ongoing carry cost is a fraction of the ETF management fee for an equivalent exposure, and the counterparty risk is zero.

Why direct-from-Africa is the most competitive physical gold available

Physical gold sold through a London or Zurich dealer arrives at the buyer already carrying the cost of three to four intermediary steps: mine production, in-country aggregation, refinery processing to LBMA Good Delivery standard, and dealer margin on top. Each step adds to the delivered price. A buyer purchasing at spot from a reputable dealer in London is paying the fully-intermediated price — there is no discount available at that point in the chain.

Buying direct from Africa, before the LBMA refinery step, captures the structural discount that the refinery would otherwise earn. The USD 5,000/kg discount on this offering is the buyer receiving the refinery's processing margin directly. For a buyer who has a refinery relationship, this is pure arbitrage. For a buyer acquiring for vault storage, it is a lower cost basis than any other legitimate route to physical ownership of the same quality of metal.

The trade-off is documentation and logistics. The buyer must verify the assay, review the export permit, and manage the specialist carrier engagement. OnePiece provides the supply and the documentation framework; the buyer's compliance team reviews and approves. For an institutional buyer with an established precious metals compliance process, this is a known workflow. For a buyer new to direct bullion acquisition, OnePiece provides structured guidance at each step.

Storage and custody options after purchase

OnePiece's role ends at delivery to your nominated facility. Custody decisions are the buyer's own, based on their regulatory situation, existing infrastructure, and cost preference. The three most common arrangements for institutional buyers in this region are the buyer's own vault, a licensed third-party custodian, and bank safe custody.

Buyers with their own licensed vault — typically refineries and larger bullion dealers — take direct delivery to their secure facility. This is the lowest-cost option for ongoing holding and the most operationally straightforward for buyers with existing bullion management processes.

Third-party custodians such as Malca-Amit's vault network (with facilities in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Dubai) offer insured storage at competitive rates, audited inventory management, and easy re-delivery for future transactions. This is the standard choice for family offices and institutional investors who do not maintain their own vault infrastructure.

Bank safe custody — typically through a private bank's precious metals desk — provides the highest level of administrative integration for clients who manage gold as part of a broader private banking relationship. Fees are higher and liquidity is slightly less direct, but the arrangement fits naturally within existing banking reporting and asset allocation frameworks.