ICE Benchmark Administration expects to begin administering the benchmark and operating 

the auction underlying the London Bullion Market Association Silver Price from September 2

5, subject to regulatory approval, parent company Intercontinental Exchange said Tuesday. 

The company  announced in July that it had been selected as the new administrator for the 

LBMA  Silve r Price,  replacing  a  joint  effort  by  CME Group and Thomson Reuters which 

stepped down in March, less than three years after taking over. 

IBA is the current operator of the London Gold Price benchmark, which replaced the century

-old gold "fix" in 2015, shortly after the CME and Thomson Reuters took over the silver "fix" i

n 2014. 

IBA   "successfully  transitioned  the  former  London  Gold Fix from a conference call based 

methodology to the independently administered, transparent and electronic auction process 

that now underlies the LBMA Gold Price," ICE said Tuesday. 

Last month, ICE announced plans to launch a new London Silver Daily Futures contract on 

September 5, pending regulatory review, via its subsidiary ICE Futures US. 

The  new  contract,  which  offers  physical  delivery  of  unallocated loco London silver, will 

"facilitate central clearing for the LBMA Silver Price Auction upon launch," ICE said Tuesday. 

"IBA  issued  a  formal  consultation  paper on changes proposed as part of the benchmark 

transition and received no comments on the proposal set out by IBA," it added. 

Also in July 10, the LME launched spot, daily and monthly futures contracts for gold and silv

er via its LMEprecious arm and detailed plans to publish intraday reference prices for the ne

w contracts. 

In the first four weeks of trade on LMEprecious, over 132,000 lots were traded, correspondin

g  to 77.4 million oz (2,408 mt) of silver and 11.7 million oz (364 mt) of gold, according to figu 

res from the exchange.