Storing precious metals underneath Zurich Airport (ZHR)

Prior to starting its Precious Metals Investment Programme, Matterhorn Asset Management undertook a thorough research on the best alternatives for storing precious metals.

The primary criteria were

• A vault located in a politically safe and economically sound country
• Vault storage outside of the banking system
• Vault storage away from any type of direct government control (e.g. Government Mints)
• Vault storage with the highest security and in a most secure location

1. Storage outside of the banking system offers a number of possibilities but we have found only 5 parties that would meet with the criteria of being in strong private hands as well as in a safe place.

2. Storage away from even remotely possible official (foreign) intervention left MAM with a choice of only 2 possible vault partners.

3. Storage in the safest possible place for us meant in Switzerland and choosing between Zurich airport or a remote mountain location.

Even though a remote mountain location in Switzerland can be very safe, romantic and very much hidden from any kind of public scenery, it is also a relatively expensive option. Zurich airport, designed on 750 hectares of flat landscape, offers easy access in normal times and customers can fly in, have a 5 minute walk and inspect their property at all times during business hours. Zurich airport is an extremely well protected and almost invisibly policed terrain with a highly and technically developed strong safety alert system in case of an attack or other major or minor event at or around the airport. The vaults are impossible to access without special permission and only after full compliance. Even with very detailed knowledge of the exact route to the vaults, the time it would take to cross the corridors and open 6 doors with special codes takes significantly longer than the 2 two minutes it would take for Police and or Military to arrive on the spot. Further more all exits from the airport would be closed immediately.

There has never been any reported incident near the vaults at Zurich airport. Matterhorn Asset Management is completely satisfied that this facility continues to offer maximum security to its customers.

Furthermore we can offer our customers a very personalized service and the vault can be visited for a personal inspection or audit of the precious metals or other holdings during business hours.

Inspection take place in a secure private room underneath Zurich airport very near the vaults. In order to prepare for these inspections the vault operator needs a bit of time to setup for inspection as the metals need to be moved from the vault to the private room, which for security reasons is never done at the same time as the customer visit.

Of course nothing is 100% certain in life or safe for that matter. A stable and independent country like Switzerland with a long gold saving tradition and its good infrastructure make the severest of risks less likely to occur and thus one of the safest places on earth.