At the Royal Canadian Mint, the big question remains unanswered: What the heck happened to our gold? After a thorough independent investigation, it still has no concrete answers and says a theft is possible.
For the past few months, the Mint has tried to get to the bottom of an unprecedented scandal in which some gold it was supposed to have in its inventory for the 2008 fiscal year has seemingly disappeared. Monday, it revealed that $15.3-million of precious metals is unaccounted for at its Ottawa facility.
Christine Aquino, director of communications for the Mint, said it is looking into “all” possibilities at this time, including the chance that someone pulled off an Ocean’s 11-esque heist from a facility that ranks as one of the most secure in the country. It has even asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to do its own investigation.
“We’re not going to discount anything,” she said.
The one thing the Mint is confident of is that the problem is not accounting. Monday, it released a 54-page independent report by Deloitte & Touche LLP that determined there were no counting mistakes that could explain the $15.3-million discrepancy in inventory. Deloitte went to great lengths to make sure no accounting errors were made — it even checked out the precious metals content in the Mint’s chlorination slag (a byproduct of the refining process).
Deloitte said that 17,500 troy ounces of gold, or 0.32% of the Mint’s stock, is unaccounted for. At today’s spot gold price of US$940.70 an ounce, that is worth nearly $16.5-million (the Mint’s $15.3-million figure reflects prices at the end of last year).
Even thieves now know not to rob banks - gold and commodities is the real currency that stands its ground against massive dilution from US government bail outs! 
On a more serious note - EPA is proposing tougher air care rules - meaning more support for Electric Vehicles and light emission vehicles (LEV) like most hybrids.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration on Monday proposed to strengthen a key air pollution health standard to better protect children and people with respiratory illnesses.
The Environmental Protection Agency said it wants to tighten the air quality requirement for nitrogen dioxide that is released from motor vehicles, coal burning power plants and factories.
The pollutant is among those the EPA is required to examine periodically to determine that concentrations are at a level to ensure healthy air. Nitrogen dioxide can cause respiratory problems and is of special danger to children and people suffering from asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
The federal air quality standard for nitrogen dioxide, as it applies to health, has not been changed in 35 years.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement the proposal to tighten the requirement reflects the latest scientific findings on what is needed to protect people's health.
"We're updating these standards to build on the latest scientific data and meet changing health protection needs," Jackson said. She said the proposal, if adopted, would "fill gaps in the current standard and provide important additional protections where they are needed most."
The EPA especially wants to assure that the federal requirement addresses health concerns from short term exposure of an hour or less. The proposal would maintain the current long-term concentration requirements, monitored over a year, but establish a new standard based on one-hour monitoring.
While the annual standard of a maximum 53 parts per million nitrogen dioxide concentration in the air would remain the same, the EPA wants to limit short-term concentrations -- based on hour-long monitoring -- to between 80 ppm and 100 ppm to provide added protection from short-term exposure.
"Current scientific evidence links short-term exposure, ranging from 23 minutes to 24 hours, with increased respiratory effects, especially in persons with asthma," the EPA statement said. These exposures, it said, often occur close to heavily traveled roadways and lead to increased visits to emergency rooms, hospital admissions and respiratory illnesses, particularly in children, the elderly and asthmatics.
The EPA set its first air quality standard for nitrogen dioxide in 1971, establishing both a standard to protect health and a secondary standard to protect public welfare. All parts of the country are well below the annual standard, but the short-term requirements need to be addressed, the agency said.
Under the ambient air quality rules, which cover a number of pollutants, the agency cannot take into account economic cost in establishing a federal standard, which is used to determine whether the air in a certain designated area is to be considered healthy. If an area has unhealthy air it risks the loss of federal highway funds and possibly other sanctions.
The EPA said it will accept public comment over the next 60 days on its nitrogen dioxide proposal and also plans to hold several hearings. It said it anticipates a final rule to be issued by January.
On a daily basis there is now some sort of environmental push for more efficiencies in cars. Even lagging car manufacturers are scrambling to switch gears to hybrid / EV samples like Chevy Voltz - lithium's future is bright.
Casey recommended Western Lithium at $0.19 and it hit a high of $0.75
