OTTAWA–The Royal Canadian Mint is going to keep better track of its gold after investigations into how $15.3 million of the precious metal was lost revealed it had never gone missing.

The Crown Corporation released the results of three third-party reviews Monday that fully explain how its records showed it had 17,500 troy ounces (about 544 kilograms) of gold that was not actually in its coffers.

There was speculation the mint had been the target of a heist after an external audit in June ruled out sloppy bookkeeping as the cause and urged officials to look into whether the gold had been stolen.

The third-party security reviews released Monday "concluded that the unreconciled difference was not the result of criminal activities, either by theft, fraud or reasons relating to data manipulation of information technology systems," the Mint said on its website.

The RCMP had also concluded last month there was no evidence to support a criminal investigation.

Instead, the reviews found that more than $3 million was sold off as slag - at a fraction of what it was worth - and another $8 million had never left the building but was miscounted.

"The Mint has learned some valuable lessons," the statement on the website said.

The Mint is now changing the way it keeps track of its gold by counting its precious metal stock every quarter instead of twice a year.

The Mint will also refine all its slag by-products internally and quickly to avoid accumulating (and losing track of) too much slag.

It has also hired a new metal comptroller and additional material management staff, implemented a more robust accounting system, is updating how it estimates process losses and staff will be better prepared for the counts.