The Royal Canadian Mint transforms its gold refining with new distributed ledger technology solution that traces metal from mine to vault

OTTAWA (ONTARIO), March 4, 2024 – As a London Good Delivery refiner dedicated to continually improving the accountability and transparency of its precious metal sourcing, the Royal Canadian Mint (the Mint) has implemented a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) solution that now makes it possible to perform end-to-end tracing and certify the provenance of gold deposited and processed at its refinery. This solution has been applied in collaboration with aXedras.

This integration of DLT allows investors, financial institutions, dealers and distributors of Mint bullion products, as well as fabricators, to access secure, standardized and digitalized information about the provenance, and integrity of the production standards related to their products. Mines, recyclers and other precious metals suppliers whose material is refined by the Mint will benefit from numerous business‑to‑business process enhancements, such as seamless immutable data transfer, easy access to reports, audits and more.

“By innovating with Distributed Ledger Technology in our world-class refinery, we can now offer our customers end-to-end sourcing transparency, in addition to the industry-leading purity, quality and security of the gold we refine and of the bullion we produce,” said Marie Lemay, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint.

The Mint is leveraging aXedras' Bullion Integrity Ledger™ solution to further enhance its focus on being best-in-class for its supply chain and partner management and will help to provide an additional layer of assurance and transparency to the refinery's operations, reinforcing the Mint’s reputation as a precious metal industry leader.

This platform will give Mint refinery customers the ability to demonstrate transparency and trust, giving their buyers more confidence in the history and provenance of their products.  It also helps the Mint support industry-wide efforts to improve transparency at every level of the bullion supply chain, which strengthens the integrity of the markets we serve.

There are two key aspects to the type and scope of data captured by DLT:

• Transfer/Ownership Custody:
  • DLT will record the transaction history of both incoming material and also gold bullion bar products. Simply put, whomever has custody/ownership of the gold bar will have the ability to see the bar’s custody history (e.g., Mint, financial institution, armoured car carrier, or London Vault).
  • DLT will log the transfer and ownership of a gold bullion bar. This could be the initial purchase from one RCM client to another (such as banks selling bars to one another) or subsequent changes of ownership, as one entity sells the bar onto another entity.  The owner of the bar will be able to see both the historical custody and ownership changes.

• Refinery Transformation (when the Mint processes the gold from rough deposit to Refinery outturn):
  • DLT allows the Mint to attach a provenance record to each gold bullion bar to enable the owner of the bar to view the origin of the gold within the bar. This could be responsibly sourced gold of a specific origin, such as a single mine, Canadian-mined gold, recycled gold, or co-mingled gold that includes the blending of responsibly sourced gold, internal recycled material recovered as part of the normal refining process, such as re-used anodes and residual gold cleaned from refinery processes. 

 Parties registered as platform users, such as refining clients, armoured car carriers/logistic providers, financial institutions, and bullion distributors and dealers, will be able to access this data directly.

About the Royal Canadian Mint

The Royal Canadian Mint is the Crown corporation responsible for the minting and distribution of Canada’s circulation coins. The Mint is one of the largest and most versatile mints in the world, producing award-winning collector coins, market-leading bullion products, as well as Canada’s prestigious military and civilian honours. 

As an established London and COMEX Good Delivery refiner, the Mint also offers a full spectrum of best-in-class gold and silver refining services.  As an organization that strives to take better care of the environment, to cultivate safe and inclusive workplaces and to make a positive impact on the communities where it operates, the Mint integrates environmental, social and governance practices in every aspect of its operations.

For more information on the Mint, its products and services, visit www.mint.ca. Follow the Mint on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

For more information, media are asked to contact:

Alex Reeves
Senior Manager, Public Affairs
Telephone: 613-884-6370
reeves@mint.ca