World Gold Council urges miners to name refiners

The framework follows a September 2023 commitment by Council members to disclose their refining partners.

Gold miners are being urged to identify the refiners receiving metal from each operating mine under a World Gold Council disclosure framework aimed at making legitimate gold flows easier to distinguish from illicit trade.

Companies producing doré, the partly refined gold-and-silver bars poured at mine sites, should publish an annual list linking each mine to its refining partners and their countries, under the London-based Council’s new disclosure guidance .

“It gives downstream partners, investors, regulators and other stakeholders more confidence in the integrity of the market while making it harder for opaque or irresponsible practices to hide in complexity,” WGC head of supply chain integrity Vivien Glass wrote in a commentary this week announcing the board’s adoption of the guidance.

The framework follows a September 2023 commitment by council members to disclose their refining partners.

The latest step sets out a common reporting format, with exclusions for commercial and security information.

It recommends disclosure across the doré-producing industry rather than establishing a legal reporting requirement.

The stakes were highlighted by New York Times investigations into Latin American gold entering North American supply chains.

The Royal Canadian Mint pledged to expand sourcing disclosures in April after the newspaper found that some gold it refined may have come from Colombian cartel-controlled mines.

The Mint said it had suspended refining material from the supply chain in question.

Gold miners are being urged to identify the refiners receiving metal from each operating mine under a World Gold Council disclosure framework aimed at making legitimate gold flows easier to distinguish from illicit trade.

Companies producing doré, the partly refined gold-and-silver bars poured at mine sites, should publish an annual list linking each mine to its refining partners and their countries, under the London-based Council’s new disclosure guidance .

“It gives downstream partners, investors, regulators and other stakeholders more confidence in the integrity of the market while making it harder for opaque or irresponsible practices to hide in complexity,” WGC head of supply chain integrity Vivien Glass wrote in a commentary this week announcing the board’s adoption of the guidance.

The framework follows a September 2023 commitment by council members to disclose their refining partners.

The latest step sets out a common reporting format, with exclusions for commercial and security information.

It recommends disclosure across the doré-producing industry rather than establishing a legal reporting requirement.