Thanks for posting the link. Interesting. Who really expects government agencies to always follow the exact letter of the law LOL. On one hand some in government want to restrict mining/oil operations, yet on the other they require all mint gold be new US mined. Congress could change the law. If the mint is required to only use US gold, coin prices could rise more.
Reports are a lot of illicit gold comes from Africa. Smuggling/trafficking of gold, drugs, whatever is difficult to discover, near impossible for the mint to know where the gold came from. Good luck knowing if any illicit gold is smuggled into US and mixed in with US mined gold.