Profile: iShares COMEX Gold Trust (IAU.P)

iShares COMEX Gold Trust (the Trust) is a grantor trust that seeks to correspond generally to the day-to-day movement of the price of gold bullion. The purpose of the Trust is to own gold transferred to the Trust in exchange for shares issued by the Trust (iShares). Each iShare represents a fractional undivided beneficial interest in the net assets of iShares COMEX Gold Trust. The assets of the Trust consist primarily of gold held by the custodian on behalf of the Trust. The objective of iShares COMEX Gold Trust is for the value of the iShares to reflect, at any given time, the price of gold owned by the Trust at that time less the Trust's expenses and liabilities.

The Trust is designed to provide a vehicle for investors to own interests in gold bullion. iShares COMEX Gold Trust's activities include issuing Baskets (a Basket consists of 50,000 iShares) of iShares in exchange for the gold deposited with the custodian as consideration, selling gold as necessary to cover the sponsor's fee, trust expenses not assumed by the sponsor and other liabilities and delivering gold in exchange for Baskets of iShares surrendered for redemption. Only registered broker-dealers, who have entered into written agreements with the sponsor and the trustee (each referred to as an authorized participant) can deposit gold and receive Baskets of iShares in exchange. iShares COMEX Gold Trust is a passive investment vehicle. The sponsor of the trust is Barclays Global Investors International, Inc. The trustee of the trust is The Bank of New York and the custodian is The Bank of Nova Scotia.