28 Days Later: Complete Elemetal Play-by-Play

Gold

A Play- By- Play Walk Through of the Elemetal Scandal

What follows is a sample of one person's painstaking research, chronologically assembled on Elemetal and Provident Metals. You can read the full timeline here. We cannot help but admire the diligence of this anonymous person running a simple website. - SKG

Summary:

[3 Elemetal (Provident Metals' parent company) employees accused of laundering $3.5B of illegal gold]
[Elemetal Status: Elemetal Refining expects to pay customers in 6 months, gold/silver refining shut down]
[Provident Status: No known issues at Provident at this time; status is 'Do business with them, but be careful']

April 9, 2017- Elemetal (a/k/a NTR Metals) has serious issues, that surfaced in March, 2017.

It all started on March 9, when Bloomberg wrote an article How to Become an International Drug Smuggler. It outlined a 23-year-old from Chile who smuggled $80M of illegal Peruvian gold, and how the Miami branch of NTR Metals (Elemetal) bought $3B of mostly illegal gold in the past 4 years. The gold smuggler said damning things about NTR: he said that he told two NTR employees that the gold was contraband, and that they helped him falsify customs paperwork. The two salesmen emphatically denied the allegations, so maybe it was a smuggler lying to make himself look bigger than he really is.

But the day after that article was published, the U.S. Attorney started an indictment against 3 NTR/Elemetal employees, including the two salesmen mentioned above, with the criminal complaint accusing them of money laundering (including such texts as "We need more Peruvian gold from Bolivia and Ecuador. Can u make it happen?", less than 2 months after receiving an article detailing illegal gold mining in Peru and gold smuggling through Bolivia).

April 11, 2017 7:10PM EST- Provident Metals, like many dealers, offers a storage option: Elemetal Vault.

April 12, 2017 4:20PM EST Update: Elemetal Refining, LLC is not planning to shut down completely, just to shut down the high grade gold and silver refining. See the 'Elemetal Update' of 12 Apr 2017 above for further details.

[April 14, 2017 5:00PM EST Update: The Elemetal Vault metal is in a Brinks facility in a separate state, and not subject to any liens]

April 12, 2017 4:15PM EST

Elemetal Refining, LLC is still "open for business"
Only the high-grade gold and silver refining has been suspended. They will continue refining copper and other base metals, and the minting and collection process.
Stockmeister stated "We are solvent as a company and I am confident in our ability to pay everybody"
It will take about 4 months "to eliminate the current refining streams they had in place because it takes that amount of time to complete the entire process."
They are repurposing the facility and have made personnel cuts, but do not have plans to shut down the plant
The bank [presumably Scotia Bank] has not shut down Elemetal Refining.
NTR Metals of Miami is under investigation. Previously, it was unknown if the company itself was under investigation.

Despite no signs of financial trouble at Provident Metals itself, until Provident responds, I cannot recommend that people do business with Provident Metals.

April 18, 2017 2:35PM EST- Here are some other details I have discovered recently:

At least one of the 3 NTR Metals Miami employees that were arrested spent most of his time working out of an office in Peru, not in Miami.
That employee was transferred from Peru to Miami in October, 2016 (about 10 months after I first heard that NTR Metals was accused of smuggling gold from Peru). He was then re-assigned to Colombia in January, 2017.
The 3 NTR employees had known each other for at least 10 years, and had previously worked together at a different company. They started working at NTR in 2008, 2011, and 2013.
The salary of one of the 3 NTR Metals Miami employees that was arrested started at $60K-$65K plus commission
One of the 3 NTR Metals Miami employees reportedly drives a car worth less than $10,000.
Court documents refer (during a sworn examination) to $300M of gold that was stolen from NTR, that NTR had purchased in Peru. This may have been several years ago. It is unclear if this was a very serious mistake in court by a federal agent, or whether there really was a $300M gold heist that never made the news.
NTR/Elemetal was issued subpoena(s) last year that they provided documents in response to
According to a court transcript, Elemetal has a skybox at the Dallas Cowboys AT&T Stadium. If true, with the 20-year contract these require, the value of that contract would be around $10M-$20M.
Over a period of 6 years, a Colombian company called Goldex is reported to have exported $1.4B of illegal gold, 97% of which reportedly went to NTR Metals competitors RMC and Metalor

April 28, 2017 8:55AM EST

Last night Elemetal Refining, LLC sent a letter to customers, letting them know the expected payment plan. 20% of the amount owed customers will be paid out today.

Elemetal Refining, LLC then expect to make additional 20% payments by June 15, August 15, October 16, and December 15. That would mean that all customers would get 100% of what they are owed before the end of the year

Full impressive work here