Metal accounting and reconciliation is properly considered to a part of the financial accounting process. Now production data has to be as auditable as financial data. It requires an understanding of the principles of mass balancing and metal accounting, knowledge of the equipment and capacity required to achieve the required level of accountability. It is based on a reconciled material balance which is itself derived from critical measurements. It defines production costs, revenues and inventories. It is a fundamental baseline for estimating the value of the operation. Internal users of metal accounting information in a technical sense for a site are the departments of Process Plant, Geology and Mine. Data collected for operational control is aggregated into the metal accounting process where the inter-departmental for reconciliation. Good quality decisions are predicated on the availability of good quality information. This is provided by metal accounting, day-to-day and for the life of the mine. External users can be considered under the umbrella of environment, social and governance (ESG) concerns; especially governance. Therefore, the outcomes of both poor metal accounting procedures and especially malpractice, can be both a loss of reputation and consequent effects on the ‘social license to operate’. Usually, technical papers about metal accounting subject the reader to homilies about sampling statistics or extol the virtues of a new piece of mass balancing/metal accounting software. This paper aims to liven up what many process engineers regard as a regular chore or dull subject by looking at some ‘war stories’ from the battlefield of metal accounting.