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Australia’s biggest gold refinery the Perth Mint has found itself in the middle of a doping scandal after allegedly diluting its bullion with silver and copper before selling to China.
Owned by the Western Australian Government, Perth Mint was outed this week by a Four Corners investigation claiming it diluted up to $8.7 billion worth of bars between 2018 and 2021 bound for the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE).
The SGE — a key buyer of Perth-produced gold — is believed to have raised complaints in 2021 about two gold bars which did not meet its strict purity specifications during standard metallurgical assaying.
The mint has confirmed that all gold sold during that period had exceeded the minimum 99.99% industry standard; however, it had breached Shanghai’s tougher specifications which require that 0.01% of the non-gold component cannot contain more than 50 parts per million of silver.
Now, the world’s largest refiner of newly-minted gold could be made to recall up to 100 tonnes of stock to Perth for re-casting without impurities at taxpayer expense.