investigation recently showed<\/a> that Canada\u2019s counterpart in Washington, the United States Mint, has been buying gold that originated in a cartel mine.<\/p>\nBut unlike the Americans, who have gone decades without tracking their gold supplies, the Canadians have known that they were getting it from a country where cocaine trafficking, paramilitary violence and the gold trade are intertwined.<\/p>\n
Yet they continued to call it North American gold.<\/p>\n
They did so, officials explained, because before the Colombian gold arrives in Canada, a Texas intermediary mixes it with American gold. In the Mint\u2019s eyes, the resulting mix is entirely North American.<\/p>\n
This fiction, and the fact that perpetuating it is completely legal, is an example of how even the world\u2019s most credible dealers allow tainted gold into the mainstream market.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t just a matter of branding. Since they\u2019re treating the gold as North American, the Canadians argue, they are not required to thoroughly investigate whether the gold was legally mined.<\/p>\n
Instead, its general counsel, Andrea Kniewasser, explained, the Mint has relied on the due diligence of its Texas supplier. \u201cWe make sure they have an audit that is valid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That audit identifies Colombia as a gold source for the supplier. In particular, it identifies the Antioquia region, where the Clan del Golfo cartel has well documented ties to the gold trade. But the Royal Canadian Mint did not ask for more detailed information. \u201cIt\u2019s not our responsibility,\u201d Ms. Kniewasser said.<\/p>\n
Such follow-up inquiries, known as \u201cenhanced due diligence,\u201d are an important way for the industry to keep terrorists, drug dealers and polluters from selling gold on the legitimate market, said David Soud, an investigator with the firm Auxilium Worldwide who specializes in tracing illicit gold.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a refiner as prestigious as the Royal Canadian Mint is not undertaking meaningful, enhanced due diligence on mixed-origin, recycled and mined gold, then what does that suggest about the gold supply chain as a whole?\u201d Mr. Soud said.<\/p>\n
The industry\u2019s major players assure the public that they keep illegally mined gold out of their supplies. But those assurances sometimes rely on head-spinning interpretations \u2014 like saying that Colombian gold is North American.<\/p>\n
The provenance of gold matters. With prices at nearly $5,000 an ounce, it is more profitable than ever to illegally slash rainforests, pollute rivers and violently enforce claims to territory.<\/p>\n
Ms. Kniewasser said the Mint had no idea that it was refining cartel-linked gold until it was notified by The Times. The Texas supplier provided 5 percent of the raw gold the Mint refined last year, she said. The Mint said has stopped accepting Colombian gold while it investigates.<\/p>\n
As for the branding, she said that calling the gold North American was permissible under industry guidelines. She also said that guidance from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development allowed the Mint to rely on the supplier\u2019s own due diligence.<\/p>\n
The O.E.C.D. disagrees.<\/p>\n
Louis Marechal, the group\u2019s senior adviser on minerals, said refiners like the Royal Canadian Mint should \u201ccheck on how the mined gold was produced to ensure it didn\u2019t fund armed groups or human rights violations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot implementing these checks,\u201d he wrote in an email, \u201cwould significantly deviate from both the letter and spirit of the guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Kniewasser said the Mint was changing its disclosure policies. Soon, she said, it will begin publishing a list of countries where its gold originates.<\/p>\n
She added that the Mint was carrying out an \u201cincident review\u201d based on The Times\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
But the stakes are low in the gold industry. Even if the Mint did not follow the guidelines, it would face no legal consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the shadowy global gold industry, where terrorists, drug dealers and dictators launder illegally mined gold into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10652,17,1632,10651,10649,10650,10653,10654,1892],"class_list":{"0":"post-21178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-auxilium-inc","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gold","11":"tag-human-rights-and-human-rights-violations","12":"tag-metals-and-minerals","13":"tag-mines-and-mining","14":"tag-organization-for-economic-cooperation-and-development","15":"tag-royal-canadian-mint","16":"tag-supply-chain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}