James Sinclair to head gold exchange

PRECIOUS metals specialist James Sinclair, known in the gold trading community for his bullish bets on gold, has joined trading platform Singapore Precious Metals Exchange (SGPMX) as its executive chairman.

He will work closely with its management to establish SGPMX's business and expand it globally, the exchange said in a statement.

The 72-year-old, speaking to reporters over a lunch interview, said: "I'm motivated by family tradition and mercantile sense."

It was a reference to his having descended from the Seligman banking family in the US and his gold mining interests in Tanzania; when the silver market collapsed in the early 80s, he advised the billionaire Hunt family on t…