Business Day (SA) Reports DRD Stake in GoldMoney

Durban Deep buys into online shopping in GoldMoney

Julie Bain
Business Day
27 January 2004

It may be some time off, but it is possible that at some point in the future you could be paying for your groceries with a debit card that, instead of taking the money out of your bank account, lets you pay for the goods with gold.

Centuries have passed since gold coins were used as a physical currency, but South African gold company Durban Roodepoort Deep and its gold-crazy investors have not ruled out the return of metal as a currency although perhaps not in it's physical form.

Durban Deep said yesterday it had bought a 1.4% strategic stake in the US-based gold marketing website GoldMoney.com for $200,000.

GoldMoney allows investors to buy gold and have it stored in one of its vaults to be traded or used as a currency to buy other goods. It may in time grow large enough to offer its clients a debit card, which could be used to buy anything from groceries and clothes to holidays or a car.

Although Durban Deep spokesman Ilja Graulich acknowledged yesterday that there would need to be a significant increase in GoldMoney's client base before the gold debit card would become a reality, he said that in some cases payment using gold was already taking place. Some Durban Deep executives had already paid to attend conferences using goldgrams as currency, Graulich said. Goldgrams are the units of account exchanged in payment for good and services by GoldMoney.

Graulich said the company was likely to exercise its option to increase its stake in GoldMoney to 14.3%.