The Toronto Star reported Tuesday that auditors are trying to track precious metals, believed to be gold, worth in the 'double digits' of millions. (Canadian Press)

Something as banal as a programming glitch in a new computer system could explain how the Royal Canadian Mint lost track of gold stockpiles, the institution's chairman says.

Mint officials are asking whether any of the programming "which tracks all this stuff was out of whack," James Love said Wednesday in an interview.

"It's still possible that it is some sort of a programming error in that system."

The Toronto Star reported Tuesday that auditors are trying to track precious metals, believed to be gold, worth in the "double digits" of millions.

'It is difficult to understand how anybody could get out of the plant with even an ounce of gold, let alone the quantities that are unreconciled at this point.'— James Love, Royal Canadian Mint

Reports of missing gold at the mint conjure up images of thieves sliding pallets of gleaming ingots out the back door.

But there may be a less swashbuckling explanation for a discrepancy between the value of the precious metals on the books and the stockpile at Ottawa headquarters.

The mint has asked the RCMP to help account for the mystery metals after being told by the government to call in the Mounties.

Rob Merrifield, minister responsible for the mint, said this week an audit already being conducted by the agency would not "be able to rectify all the missing — or potential missing — precious metals."

Merrifield said he didn't know the value of the gold, silver, platinum and palladium in question.

Criminal heist unlikely:chair

It's too early to tell what happened, Love said Wednesday. But he believes a criminal heist is unlikely given the elaborate security at the mint, where RCMP-trained personnel keep an eye on things.

'Obviously a very small programming error, over the types of volumes we had in '08, could easily produce this number.'— James Love, Royal Canadian Mint

"Every employee coming and going changes out of their street clothes. They go through metal detectors both coming into the plant and going out. It is difficult to understand how anybody could get out of the plant with even an ounce of gold, let alone the quantities that are unreconciled at this point," said Love, a Toronto lawyer first appointed to the board three years ago.

"Obviously frauds and security breaches happen, so we haven't ruled anything out. But we simply don't believe that that's the sort of thing that happened."

Love said there is supposed to be more than one person present when anyone is handling precious metal, and movements of those stockpiles within the mint are recorded.

"The security is very tight and it's state of the art."

When gold is refined, impurities bubble to the surface to form a substance known as slag. Slag has a certain amount of precious metal in it and it is later re-refined to extract the valuable portion.

Mint examines slag, sweepings

Given a huge demand for gold last year, the mint built up an estimated 90 tonnes of slag that there wasn't time to refine, Love said.

"An estimate was made at the year end as to what the value of the gold in this slag would be, and it was thought that this could explain a significant portion of this reconciliation difference.

"The amount of gold that was determined to be in that slag was significantly higher than the estimate that was originally used," he explained.

"That went a significant distance in reconciling the rolling inventory to the physical count, but certainly not far enough from our point of view."

The initial discrepancy at issue was less than 0.5 per cent of the gold that had flowed through the facility last year, Love said.

"That sounds like a small number and some might argue that's an acceptable discrepancy. And neither the board nor management in this case, based on the volumes involved, thought that that was the proper way to look at it."

The possibility of a computer glitch — though merely a suspicion at this point — has not been discounted.

"Obviously a very small programming error, over the types of volumes we had in '08, could easily produce this number," Love said.

Officials are also wondering about sweepings — the stray gold particles that accumulate in drain fittings and air filtration systems at the mint.

"Maybe there are some sweepings that were not picked up somewhere, and that may account for another portion of it," Love said.

"I think it's unlikely that this would explain the whole difference, but it may be part of it, and it may be that there's no single explanation at all."