Mining, People and the Environment > Enviromine > Gold gets new standard

Enviromine

The World Gold Council (WGC) and its members have developed two standards aimed at removing gold sold to fund conflict from the gold market.

The WGC said it had developed a framework to track gold from the mine to the end of the refining process. This framework consists of a ‘chain of custody’ standard and a ‘conflict-free gold’ standard, with additional standards on audit, certification and the handling of recycled gold in development.

“The WGC believes that gold must be a source of economic and social development wherever it is found and that any possibility for gold to fund conflict must be eradicated,” the group said in a statement.

The ‘conflict-free gold’ standard contains a framework of benchmarks and prompts through which companies must assess the adequacy of their systems and analyse their impacts upon those around them, the WGC said. The standard is based on three sets of assessments: conflict;  company; and, commodity.


The WGC added that the standard is underpinned by a series of principles including respecting human rights and payment transparency.

The ‘chain of custody’ standard, meanwhile, provides infrastructure to identify the movement of gold doré from the mine to the refinery, noting all parties involved in the process.

The WGC standards follow the production of the world’s first Fairtrade- and Fairmined-certified artisanal gold earlier this year. The scheme set up by the Fairtrade Foundation aims to pay artisanal miners a standard price for their gold.