UAE Remains Capital of the Bullion World, Expert Says

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
This is the Morning Drive, it is Mira Business FM. Time now for our weekly look at gold and silver and platinum and palladium and precious metals with our precious guest, Jeff Rhodes, who is back from the UK. See what I did there? The combination of the preciousness. Oh, I don't know what's going on.
So look, Jeff is the MD for Business Development for the Middle East and Asia for Monetary Metals. Nice to see you. You've been away for a while, but you look rested.

**Jeff Rhodes** (0:27)
Yeah, six weeks. Well, I was working.

**Tim Elliott** (0:29)
Oh, I know. I'm not accusing you of dosing.

**Jeff Rhodes** (0:32)
Kind of working.

**Tim Elliott** (0:34)
Hardly working?

**Jeff Rhodes** (0:36)
It's difficult because of the time zone in London. I was in Singapore. Singapore is pretty good because you're ahead of the curve. I was there for almost two weeks and then about a month in London.
You're behind the curve.
This here in Dubai, frankly, is the best place in the entire world to run a gold business because you're right in the middle of everything. This is physically the middle of the world of precious metals, that's for sure. Actually, if you lay the map down, it's probably in the middle of the world actually. So it can't be far off. Maybe Turkey would challenge that, but it's certainly in the middle and the time zone is perfect. So at times, I struggle, because I'm so used to doing what I do in Dubai. And I mean, this is home really, Tim. So I feel more comfortable, as I say, doing what I'm doing from here. I feel in control. Not that I'm in control of the gold market, but I feel as though I know what's going on at any one time.

**Tim Elliott** (1:47)
I look at you as the man in charge of the gold market for your track record over the last 9 or 10 months that you've been coming in here.
We've yet to catch you out. But that's my aim in life.

**Jeff Rhodes** (1:59)
To catch me out.

**Tim Elliott** (1:59)
It's my mission.

**Jeff Rhodes** (2:00)
Yeah, to join the club.

**Tim Elliott** (2:02)
Yeah.
It's nice to see you. Good to have you here. I did want to mention the World Cup very quickly because I know you obviously you're a football fan and we saw a World Cup final of sorts. Weird. I thought it was a very old thing. Just generally, though, tournament, big deal for the world.

**Jeff Rhodes** (2:22)
It was wonderful. I have to say, there was a lot of concern, you had US, Canada and Mexico.

**Tim Elliott** (2:30)
There always is at the start.

**Jeff Rhodes** (2:31)
There was. The way it was delivered and the stadiums.

**Tim Elliott** (2:35)
I'm with you.

**Jeff Rhodes** (2:36)
Tim, it was just fabulous.

**Tim Elliott** (2:39)
Yeah.

**Jeff Rhodes** (2:40)
I tell you, sorry, my son, Chris, I found that he went off to watch the semi-final with my grandson and flew out to Miami and back again.

**Tim Elliott** (2:59)
Just for that?

**Jeff Rhodes** (3:00)
Just for that. I think he probably stayed a few hours in a hotel room.
But yeah. Did you love it?

**Tim Elliott** (3:07)
Was it it?
That's one of those lives. It's a bucket list thing, isn't it?

**Jeff Rhodes** (3:10)
That's a tick. Yeah. I mean, we did it last year at Spurs. We went to Bilbao, watched Spurs against Man United, and that was a bit of a bucket list thing because Spurs won a European trophy for the first time in God knows how many years.

**Tim Elliott** (3:28)
You didn't even shoehorn that in. That was just the most natural segue we've had.

**Jeff Rhodes** (3:33)
Yeah. But anyway, that was good. It would have been nice to go, but I wasn't asked, so what to do?

**Tim Elliott** (3:41)
Yeah. I know the feeling. No, I'd just like to mention it.

**Jeff Rhodes** (3:45)
It was great, though. And England did super well.
I did, honestly. I think to finish third and to beat France 6-4, I haven't seen that game, Tim, and I'm looking forward to catching up.

**Tim Elliott** (4:00)
Well, let me just stop you there. That's game of the tournament.
Not for the win, not as an England, as an English person, just for the number of goals, which was exciting. And France coming back the way they did, it was tremendous performance on both sides. But it was the spirit of the game that I thought. It was a proper football match with a real, it was just a feeling about that. It was like a great World Cup game.