The Perth Mint is now a wholly-owned statutory authority of the government of Western Australia and part of the state owned Gold Corporation group, an international precious metal refining, minting and trading group. Not only does it play a vital role in Australia’s gold industry, both as a minter of precious metal legal tender coins and as the country’s largest gold refiner, it has also developed an innovative new product, The Perth Mint Certificate Program (PMCP). Paper made of gold PMCP offers international investors gold metal storage facilities and it is the only depository operating today that can offer the investor a government guarantee.

The bullion bar products of the Gold Corporation group and therefore, The Perth Mint, also enjoy accreditation from the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), the New York Commodities Exchange (COMEX) and the Tokyo Commodities Exchange (TOCOM). The first initiative of its kind, the PMCP involves a document that is issued to the holder as evidence of legal title to precious metals stored on either an allocated (segregated) or unallocated (unsegregated) basis with The Perth Mint. The document is registered to the owner and identified by a client name and certificate number. It means that for the first time, investors can

It operates much like the purchase of physical precious metals for delivery. The certificate is extremely easy to liquidate and the owner can simply sell the certificate back to an approved dealer. Alternatively, the owner can take physical delivery at The Perth Mint or they can arrange for physical delivery at a variety of locations worldwide. “You don’t have to be a millionaire either. You can open a PMCP account with as little as US$10,000 in most regions. Another attraction is there is no storage or fabrication charges with our unallocated/ unsegregated option,” says Suchecki. Added security Other reassuring factors for investors are that they have the security of the Gold Corporation Act 1987 and the state’s Financial Administration and Audit Act 1985, behind their ownership. In addition, all depository metal is covered by very comprehensive Lloyd’s of London insurance. The mint also recently completed a new high security A$15 million storage and minting facility adjacent to its century-old headquarters in East Perth, with storage capacity in excess of 100 tonnes, which is more than the Australian government’s national gold holdings.

Histroy of the Perth Mint

Sir John Forest The Perth Mint has played a major part in Australia’s history of gold. It was originally founded in 1899 to turn gold from the Western Australia gold rush into sovereigns for the British Empire. The mint, based in East Perth, made up one of three branches of the Royal Mint of London which were established in the Australian colonies. During this time, there was little money in Perth for which the miners could exchange the gold they found, or to pay for the goods and services needed by the fast-growing population. So the premier of Western Australia, Sir John Forrest, asked the British government to establish a branch of the Royal Mint in Perth, to refine the gold being produced in the Eastern goldfields and to mint it into British gold coins to be used as a currency in the colony. This laid the foundations for The Perth Mint today. More than 100 years later, the mint still continues to function and is one of the oldest mints in the world, still operating from its original premises, fulfilling dual roles of precious metal refining and coining. It now belongs to a select group of gold refiners around the world whose weights and assays have accreditation on the London Bullion Market, which regulates the world’s gold trade.

The mint also has the distinction of having produced the purest gold ever assayed by the Royal Mint. This means that gold refined by The Perth Mint finds acceptance anywhere in the world. As well as refining gold bars, The Perth Mint also holds Australia’s largest collection of natural gold nuggets, including the 369 ounce “Golden Beauty” which is one of the largest nuggets in the world. It also produces gold jewellery, coins and medallions. It has played an advisory role in establishing several other international mints and refineries, including the world’s largest, South Africa’s Rand Refinery. While in the 1980s, following a major redevelopment initiated by the state government, The Perth Mint became the home of the Australian Precious Metals Coin Programme, and now has the international reputation of being a specialist mint in this field. By agreement with the commonwealth government, The Perth Mint issues precious metal coinage under the nation’s Currency Act 1965. These bullion and proof-quality coins include the Australian Nugget gold coins, the Australian Koala platinum coins and the Australian Lunar gold coins. The mint now produces a wide range of gold bullion bars, available in ingots and bars of up to 400 ounces. Altogether, from November 1986 to the end of June 2001, The Perth Mint has converted more than 137 tonnes of gold into gold bullion coins.