The Reserve: One of the World's Highest Capacity Vaults
When I started Silver Bullion in 2009, our company logo was a lighthouse representing a safe wealth harbour. The lighthouse symbolism represented steadfastness and safety in the face of the financial and monetary storms brewing in the distance.
We have since adopted a more easily recognizable logo of a shield protecting a home. However, I still like to think of our efforts these past 13 years as building the strongest and safest lighthouse (wealth harbour) possible before the storm hits.
In 2014, we took a big step to design and build our own 600-ton capacity vault, The Safe House, in Singapore. We witnessed how Silver Bullion’s unique wealth protection focus resonated with customers, seeking to minimize Western jurisdictional exposure for their wealth, as gold and silver stored at The Safe House steadily increased. This gave us the resources to improve further.
By 2020, the pandemic-induced market panic saw demand for precious metals skyrocket, creating physical shortages globally. Along with gold reaching a new all-time high in price, that year also saw bullion held at The Safe House reach an all-time high. If this panic was a precursor of future market panics, we estimated that our original facility then would have reached its maximum capacity within two years – much quicker than we had previously estimated when we planned for The Safe House’s capacity expansion. Clearly, we had to bring our plans forward.
Therefore in late 2020, we took the next big step of purchasing our own building which we named The Reserve. Since then, we have meticulously planned its conversion into the next iteration of my vision of a safe harbor for generational wealth.
Today, having finally awarded building contracts and received all required permits, we can finally show you the first images of The Reserve's design – an incredible facility like no other.
The Reserve has a facade made of onyx panels each weighing 250 kg.
During the daytime, these panels produce a natural golden hue from refracted sunlight.
Once completed in 2024, The Reserve will be able to store nearly 500 million troy ounces (or 15,500 metric tons) of silver and gold in Singapore. The facility is uniquely designed to store large quantities of silver and is capable of holding 28% of globally identifiable silver bullion inventories (based on 52,947 metric tons of above-ground silver as reported by the Silver Institute's 2021 World Silver Survey).
The Reserve’s vaulting capacity can easily hold the entire COMEX silver inventories or more than 3.5 times the Shanghai Gold Exchange inventories. It will be the world’s highest capacity vault.
The high storage capacity is made possible by the massive foundations which allow the vault’s floors to withstand up to 45 times more weight than a typical carpark structure, allowing silver to be stacked as high as 12 meters. It will no doubt be an impressive sight.
The main silver vault’s 90 kN/m2 (1880 psf) floor loading rating allows for the efficient vertical stacking of silver 12m high.
The project took longer than originally planned due to the unique regulatory, logistical, and planning challenges of constructing such a massive vault during a pandemic.
The design required approval from 12 separate regulatory bodies and the entire building had to be upgraded to meet the latest high standards of Singapore’s statutory building requirements while also satisfying security and maintenance necessities.
The Reserve will be an iconic building highly visible at night as well. If you are visiting Singapore, you should spot The Reserve easily when looking out the left windows of the plane upon the final landing approach at Changi International Airport.
The main silver vault’s 90 kN/m2 (1880 psf) floor loading rating allows for the efficient vertical stacking of silver 12m high.
While the bulk of The Reserve’s 15,000 metric ton capacity is for silver and similarly priced rare industrial metals, we have also imported an additional 350 tons of composite steel UL-class 2 vault panels which will be assembled into fifteen individual high-security gold vaults giving an estimated 500-ton storage capacity for gold and other valuables. UL-class 2 is the vaulting standard underwriters prefer for insured gold.
Up to 14 UL-class 2 vaults will be made available for lease to third parties.
These vaults can be co-managed by The Safe House to provide professional vaulting services, insurance, and bonded (tax-free) storage.
With 180,000 sqft of space available at The Reserve, our plans for this unique facility go beyond its massive vault. We would like to share these exciting plans with you over the coming months as we work towards The Reserve’s 2024 completion and inauguration.
I would like to conclude this newsletter with Alan Greenspan’s quote (before he became Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve) which I believe forecasts the nature of the coming storm that will likely hit us before the end of the decade:
“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holdings illegal, as was done in the case of gold.” – Alan Greenspan
Today, holding gold in the United States is legal because trust in the US dollar does not necessitate a gold backing. This is likely to change once reckless currency printing erodes the trust in the currency. The world is a big place, however, and there are legal safe harbors for those who prepare for the storm. Having spent roughly a third of my life in the United States, Europe, and Singapore, I am more convinced than ever that Singapore is the ideal jurisdiction for the safekeeping of intergenerational wealth to survive these coming storms.
Do not procrastinate. Truly secure your wealth today.
Sincerely,
Gregor J. Gregersen, founder