Japan’s largest bullion house, Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo, said on Friday it recycled a record 1.9 tonnes of gold from jewellery and ingots brought in by customers in August alone, as Europe’s debt crisis hoisted global gold prices to historic highs.

The 1,917.5 kg of gold Tanaka Kikinzoku recycled in August exceeded the 1,831.1 kg of gold it recycled in the first six months of this year, and accounted for about a half of the bullion it recycled in the whole of 2010.

A downgrade of the U.S. sovereign debt rating amid a deteriorating outlook for the world’s largest economy, as well as a spreading European debt crisis, have triggered a rush to safe-haven gold, pushing up prices by 14 percent in August.

Spot gold topped $1,900 an ounce for the first time ever in late August. It continued to rise in September, scaling a fresh record high of $1,920.30 an ounce on Sept. 6.

Japanese households bucked the global gold rush, taking the surging price as a chance to cash in, as gold in Japan is less associated with risk aversion and seen more as an asset that many bought when prices were languishing.

Tanaka began a service specialising in recycling ingots and jewellery from retail customers in June 2009.

In August this year domestic gold prices also hit a 31-year high while benchmark gold futures on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange marked the highest since its launch in March 1982.

Tanaka’s recycling of jewellery and ingots also includes platinum and silver.

Tanaka bought 0.17 tonnes or 167.8 kg of platinum in August, a record monthly purchase, equal to about 70 percent of the 239.7 kg it bought from retail clients in the first six months of the year. Last year it recycled 462.2 kg of platinum.

On TOCOM, platinum futures JPLc6 rose as much as 6 percent in August, while gold futures JAUc6 soared 17 percent. – reuters