Royal Canadian Mint sourcing claims face scrutiny over cartel-linked gold

The Royal Canadian Mint has spent years marketing its precious metals as secure, transparent and verifiable. Now that promise is under pressure, as reporting on cartel-linked Colombian gold has put a sharper spotlight on how criminally tainted metal can move through supply chains that are supposed to be tightly controlled.

The Mint says its Responsible Sourcing Policy is designed to ensure refinery operations meet rigorous standards, and its 2024 compliance report says its Responsible Metals Program and anti-money-laundering, anti-terrorist financing and know-your-customer controls are consistent with London Bullion Market Association guidance. The Mint is also a certified LBMA Good Delivery refiner, a status that carries annual independent auditing and public reporting requirements. In Ottawa, the refinery has even promoted cleaner processing, saying acid-less separation technology has cut the need for chlorine gas by more than 50%.

That image of tightly managed sourcing was reinforced in October 2023, when the Mint and Newmont introduced a single-source 1 oz. Gold Maple Leaf coin said to be entirely made from gold from Newmont’s Éléonore mine in Northern Québec. Newmont said the coin was refined by the Mint under a rigorous segregation protocol, a model meant to show exactly where the metal came from and how it was handled. The Mint’s reports page now lists a 2024 report, a 2024 forced-labour and child-labour report, and other 2024 compliance materials.

The scrutiny now comes from a much rougher reality in Latin America. The LBMA said in 2024 that responsible sourcing of artisanal and small-scale mined gold remained a major issue, and analysts and investigative reporting in 2026 said illegal gold had become one of the most profitable illicit exports for some criminal groups in Colombia and the wider region, driven by high prices and porous supply chains. That matters because the gold trade often relies on multiple intermediaries, making it easier for illicit metal to be mixed, re-papered or routed through legitimate channels before it reaches major refineries.

Canadian mining interests in Mexico have also faced cartel-related alarms. CBC News reported on April 17, 2026 that more than a dozen workers at the Canadian-owned Camino Rojo mine in Mexico filed hotline complaints alleging local management worked with an organized crime group to pressure workers. A CUSMA rapid-response labour panel later found Camino Rojo management violated workers’ rights by allowing threats and coercion before a November 2024 union vote, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on April 15, 2026 that her security cabinet would review the allegations. Separately, Mexican authorities said on February 5, 2026 that they wanted to speak with Vizsla Silver Corp. after at least 10 employees were kidnapped in Concordia, Sinaloa, on January 23, 2026.

The central test for the Mint is now obvious: if cartel-linked gold can enter markets feeding major North American refineries, then certification, segregation protocols and compliance reports are only as credible as the weakest link in the chain.