by Ronan Manly
Tuesday, Nov 26, 2024 - 20:46
In a city famous for setting records such as the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, a new record-breaking gold bar weighing an incredible 300 kgs (9600 troy ozs) has just been produced in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). At current gold prices, this 300 kg bar is valued at more than US$ 25 million.
Manufactured by Dubai based Emirates Minting Facility LLC, the massive new gold bar was officially certified as record breaking by Guinness World Records on 10 November 2024, and officially unveiled at the Dubai Precious Metals Conference (DPMC) on 19 November.
Unveiling of the 300 kg gold bar during the Dubai Precious Metals Conference (DPMC) at the JAFZA One Convention Centre, Dubai, on 19 November 2024Comprising the equivalent of a mind boggling 24 ‘Good Delivery’ gold bars each weighing 400 ozs, the new ‘World’s Largest Gold Bar’ shatters the previous record which was held by a 250 kg gold bar made by Mitsubishi Materials Corporation in Japan in 2005.
While the Japanese record stood for 19 years, Dubai has thrown down the gauntlet by creating a 99.99% pure gold bar which is 20% heavier than the previous record holder, and has now taken the record breaking title from the Far East to the Middle East. A 300 kg gold bar is indeed a big statement.
Officially weighing 300.12 kgs (661 lb 10 oz), Emirates Minting Facility said that it created the new trapezoidal gold bar to highlight it’s technical skill in gold refining, and “as a way to honour the UAE's legacy” and reflect “the support of a nation that continues to inspire greatness.”
Dubai’s new 300 kg gold bar on display at the Dubai Precious Metals Conference, 19 November 2024: (from left) Ahmed bin Sulayem (DMCC chairman), Jordan Belfort (Wolf of Wall Street), and Emma Brian (Guinness World Records)300 kgs = Twenty Four * ‘400’ oz’ bars
Not only is the new 300 kg gold bar equivalent to 24 ‘400 oz’ gold bars, it actually looks like it was literally made using 24 ‘400 oz’ gold bars.In the following montage of images, which is taken from a LinkedIn video post by Emirates Minting Facility, you can actually see how the 300 kg gold bar was made, and that fact that is seems to use approximately twenty four “400" oz” gold bars, as raw ingredients in the manufacturing feat.
First the 400 oz gold bars are laid out on a table (from the screenshot you can see 20 bars on the table and 4 more in the crucible (mould). Then the bars are all inserted into the giant crucible which is in the shape of the 300 kg gold bar. Then what looks like an induction furnace uses electromagnetic induction to heat and melt the gold (to a temperature of 1,064°C), after which the molten gold cools and solidifies to create the new giant gold bar.
The making of the 300 kg gold bar. Source: LinkedIn video post by Emirates Minting FacilitySecurity and Interactivity
The new 300 kg gold bar (which is owned by Emirates Minting Facility), is actually the latest member of an exclusive club of large record breaking gold bars which have been produced since the mid 1990s in Japan and Taiwan (see below), and like its predecessors, the 300 kg gold bar is housed in a secure transparent display case, but at the same time is an ‘interactive display’ which allows the gold bar to be touched.
In the case of the Dubai gold bar, this security extends to what looks like the transparent display case being made out of thick bullet proof glass, while interactivity is allowed via circular openings at each end of the transparent box which are large enough to put your hand and arm into.
Japan & Taiwan: In Positions 2 and 3
For every dramatic new world record created, an old record is shattered, and nowhere is this more striking than in the rarefied world of huge gold bars. Bars that were once at the pinnacle of size are now consigned into second and even third place, and are compelled to accept this inevitability.But at the same time, the new record holder is in some ways “standing on the shoulders of giants”, for any new bar arguably exists due to the progress of its forebears, as well as the need to ‘beat’ the old weight benchmark. This is true of the new gold bar made by Emirates Minting Facility and the fact that it had weigh more than 250 kgs.
Therefore, let’s look quickly at the two gold bars which have previously been world record holders, one of which was still in pole position up until early November 2024, and both of which have inspired the new 300 kg bar.
Mitsubishi Materials 250 kgs gold bar, Japan
Created in June 2005 by Mitsubishi Materials Corporation at its flagship Naoshima Smelter & Refinery, in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, the largest gold bar in existence prior to November 2024 is a 250 kg (551 lb 2 oz) gold bar of 99.99% gold purity which is housed at the Toi Gold Mine Museum (Ogon no Yakata) in Toi, Izu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, south west of Tokyo. This bar was officially certified by Guinness World Records in July 2005.
250 kg gold bar made by Mitsubishi Materials Corp in June 2005. Located at the Toi Gold Mine Museum in Toi, Shizuoka, JapanThis 250 kg gold bar, which measures 45.5 cm by 22.5 cm at the base and is 17 cm high, was first put on public display at the Toi Gold Mine Museum in July 2005, and is also housed in a secure transparent box which has circular openings that allow museum visitors to put their hand and arm into to touch the giant gold bar. While this 250 kg gold bar held the ‘largest gold bar’ record between 2005 and November 2014, it will now have to rebill itself as the world’s ‘second largest gold bar”.
Visitors touch the 250 kg gold bar on display in the Toi Gold Mine Museum, Shizuoka Prefecture, JapanThe reason Mitsubishi Materials Corp created a 250 kg gold bar back in June 2005 was to “win back” the world record title after the 200 kg gold bar which it manufactured in the year 2000 lost the world record title to a 220 kg gold bar that had been produced in Taiwan in 2004.
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