Every year, the United States Mint sells more than $1 billion of investment-grade gold coins. Each is stamped with an icon like the bald eagle, signifying the government\u2019s guarantee, required by law, that the gold is 100 percent American.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo hold a coin or medal produced by the Mint is to connect to the founding principles of our nation,\u201d the Mint declares.<\/p>\n
But a New York Times investigation has found that the government\u2019s program of gold sales is based on a lie. The Mint is actually the last link in a chain that launders foreign gold, much of it illegally mined, for an insatiable market.<\/p>\n
Now, even President Trump\u2019s 24-karat gold coin<\/a>, commemorating the United States\u2019 250th birthday, could come from a swirl of non-American gold from any number of sources.<\/p>\n The Mint, the biggest name in the global market for investment gold coins, is an example of how the industry\u2019s guardrails have collapsed. Gold prices hover around $5,000 an ounce, about four times the price of a decade ago. That gives criminal organizations and fly-by-night operators a huge incentive to mine in wasteful, destructive and risky ways.<\/p>\n Investors buy gold as a hedge<\/a> against instability. Nearly every terrorist attack, war and financial meltdown in the past quarter-century has fueled a gold-buying frenzy.<\/p>\n But as prices climb ever higher, wealthy buyers are actually helping to create the very instability they are trying to hedge against.<\/p>\n The industry\u2019s biggest players speak about bright lines between legal and criminal gold. Buying from a reputable source, like the Mint, is supposed to ensure that criminals, terrorists and polluters do not profit. In fact, the Mint has looked away for decades as gold from dubious sources flows into its plant in West Point, N.Y.<\/p>\n We tracked hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign gold entering the Mint\u2019s supply chain in recent years. That includes secondhand gold, with provenance that is difficult or even impossible to determine, and gold from countries like Colombia and Nicaragua, where the industry is linked to criminal groups.<\/p>\n When we first approached the Mint, a spokesman said that its gold came entirely from the United States, as the law requires. After we shared our findings, the Mint said the U.S. was its \u201cprimary\u201d source and said it was taking steps to better track its gold.<\/p>\n Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose department oversees the Mint, said he would investigate the gold procurement practices.<\/p>\n \u201cThis review is focused on ensuring that the U.S. Mint\u2019s gold suppliers comply with the law and strictly satisfy their obligations, and that the Mint takes every step possible to continue to vigorously safeguard our national security and uphold market integrity,\u201d he said in a written statement.<\/p>\n For illegally mined foreign gold to become an American Eagle coin, two seeming acts of alchemy occur.<\/p>\n First, the illegal gold becomes legal.<\/p>\n Second, it becomes American.<\/p>\n To see this sleight of hand at work, we headed into the heart of Clan del Golfo territory in northwestern Colombia. A six-hour drive from Medell\u00edn took us down the northern slope of the Andes and into the tropical lowlands.<\/p>\n The miners call the ranch La Mandinga, a name for an evil spirit.<\/p>\n For the past eight years, the Clan del Golfo has run La Mandinga with a short list of rules, a pair of mining supervisors told us. The most important: Nobody mines without cartel permission, and everybody pays.<\/p>\n Every month, the supervisors said, a man on a motorbike collects the Clan\u2019s cut, $400 for each team of five. There are hundreds of teams, perhaps a thousand or more.<\/p>\n They work in open-air mines, using excavators and high-pressure hoses to turn La Mandinga\u2019s hillsides into mud. Picking the tiny flecks of gold from that muck is impossible, so the miners mix the mud with mercury and stir by hand until the mercury binds to the gold.<\/p>\n All of this is illegal, environmentally destructive and toxic.<\/p>\n