The Western Australian Opposition Leader has referred to as for a Royal Commission into the Perth Mint, amid a slew of allegations levelled on the valuable metals processor.
An ABC Four Corners section on Monday reported the Perth Mint “doped” – i.e. diluted – quite a lot of gold bars offered to China.
The mint started chopping its bars with silver in 2018 – an accepted business follow, and never unlawful in and of itself – however now faces having to recall $8.7bn price of gold bullion offered to the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE).
SGE maintains one of many highest purity requirements on the planet, demanding its gold be 99.9 per cent pure, however the doping wasn’t disclosed to the change on the time of the sale.
An inner Perth Mint report confirmed refinery employees had raised issues the degrees of silver and copper being added to gold bars have been too excessive.
Then, in September 2021, SGE flagged two gold bars which allegedly contained unacceptable ranges of silver.
An inner examination of the purity of a kind of bars additionally revealed it had been beforehand flagged by the mint itself as having an excessive amount of silver.
Despite the exams, then-Perth Mint CEO Richard Hayes determined solely to ship the criticism exams to SGE.
About this time, the mint additionally stopped its doping program.
Nationals WA chief Shane Love is now calling for a Royal Commission into Gold Corporation, the Perth Mint’s official identify.
“As a State government-owned organisation, it is unfathomable to see these allegations about Gold Corporation, particularly given the Premier was directly responsible much of the time,” Mr Love mentioned on Tuesday.
Perth Mint is the one mint on the planet with a authorities assure, and is the most important processor of newly mined gold on the planet.
The similar Four Corners report additionally revealed Perth Mint is being investigated by monetary crime regulator AUSTRAC over compliance with the nation’s cash laundering legal guidelines.
In one case, infamous Perth bikie Dayne Brajkovich was allowed to purchase $27,000 price of gold bullion in June, solely having to point out his driver’s license regardless of guidelines stating thorough identification checks have to be carried out on bullion purchases over $5000.
There’s no suggestion Mr Brajkovich’s funds have been ill-gained, however AUSTRAC’s web site explains additional checks ought to have been carried out.
“You must identify the source of funds and source of wealth on certain high-risk customers,” reads its web site.
Perth Mint CEO Jason Waters is because of entrance the media in Perth on Tuesday afternoon to answer the ABC investigation.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
