I get antsy when I lose my pocket change to the black hole that is my car seat. But those quarters and dimes seem rather petty in comparison to what South Africa’s Rand Refinery recently let slip out of its pockets…
The refinery lost a 87,000 oz chunk of gold “the size of a microwave”!
That would be worth about $144 million in today’s prices.
According to a statement from the refinery:
Following the adoption of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in April last year, Rand Refinery experienced implementation difficulties which have led to a difference between the actual inventory and the accounting records of approximately 87,000 ounces of gold. Uncertainty around the true position has prevented the Company from being able to finalise its annual financial statements for the financial year ended 30 September 2013. This information has been shared with the Company’s regulators, shareholders, insurers and banks.
That’s a whole lotta gold!
But in the grand scheme of Rand’s history, it is a drop in the bucket. The refinery has processed 50,000 tonnes of gold since 1920. That is a huge chunk of the total amount of gold exisiting in the world, recently estimated to be around 171,300 tonnes!
To put that in perspective, check out this graphic:
So next time you drop a penny down the sewer drain, remember: it could be a hell of a lot worse.
