Centennial Precious Metals, Inc: Serving Gold Coin & Bullion Investors Since 1973

January 2010 Comment:

The real-life whodunnit -- (June 2009) The Royal Canadian Mint says the precious metals seem to have vanished from its inventory in the 2008 fiscal year, according to the third-party review conducted by Deloitte & Touche LLP.

About 17,500 troy ounces of gold, which represents 0.32 per cent of the mint's stock, were unaccounted for, the report said.

Rounding up the usual suspects...
-- Gold may have been lost through the refining process. The auditor suggested a review of the technical processes used in the various aspects of refining.
-- Errors in reconciling the financial records and the physical stockpile of precious metal in previous years, although it concedes "it would be difficult to complete such a review due to the passage of time, the availability of supporting documentation and the turnover of mint staff."
-- The theft of the material and "potential inappropriate activities by both internal and/or external parties."

"Either they've got to admit that they've got somebody stealing the gold, or they're incompetent and they lost $15 million worth of gold because they're not very good at refining and re-refining," NDP finance critic Thomas Mulcair said. "Again, it's again a scandalous inability to handle the public interest and the public purse. It's shocking."

It's elementary(?), Watson -- (December 21, 2009) A series of miscalculations and blunders in its gold refinery dating back to 2005 were responsible for 17,500 troy ounces of gold going missing from the mint's Sussex Drive inventory count last October, the mint announced in a 12-page report. That's the equivalent of almost forty-four 400-ounce bars and worth more than $20 million in today's prices.

More than $3 million in government gold was unwittingly sold off at a fraction of its value as refinery slag, while $8 million more was miscounted and never left the Royal Canadian Mint, the Crown corporation revealed today in a full accounting of how it lost track of a fortune in gold for a year.

The mint said a 14-month hunt to find out what happened to the precious metal now "fully accounts" for the missing gold, though it admits almost 3,500 ounces unwittingly sold off in slag to U.S. re-refiners will never be recovered.

"These reviews have bolstered our reputation by strengthening the mint's accounting practices, vindicating our security systems and confirming that our technical procedures and expertise in other areas are superior to industry standards."