What the REAL figures on Chinese gold imports mean

We normally quote WGC figures for imports in to China with the (already incredible) circa 1,100 tonne for the year figure but it seems WGC don’t account for it all.  In a new study by Eric Sprott using actual hard published figures, he has proven 2,131 tonne went to China in the first 9 months of this year or 2,841 tonne annualised.  That is 580 tonne more than world mine supply for the year.  This adds more weight to the argument that western central banks (the US in particular) must be ‘leasing’ their gold holdings or a very real disconnect between what ‘paper gold’ exists and actual holdings backing it up.  When this unwinds the impact on gold prices, and silver prices, could be enormous.  It simply defies common sense that gold prices suppressed by paper trades can defy the movement to strong eastern hands in physical gold.