That's a fair criticism. Lihir and Newcrest have had some issues over the years and there ARE a lot of unscrupulous boards in the industry - particularly in the smaller caps. That's why I prefer the bigger producers.

I do like to hold physical too, but there comes a point where storage is an issue as well as liquidity. What I like about shares is that you don't have to find storage and they are generally very liquid, but you do need to be careful of the unscrupulous operators.