Gold miners should identify the refiners receiving metal from each operating mine under a World Gold Council disclosure framework adopted by the council’s board this week. Companies producing dore, the partly refined gold-and-silver bars poured at mine sites, would publish an annual list naming each mine, its state and country, the refiner receiving its dore and the refiner’s country, with every recipient listed when a mine uses more than one refiner.
The framework follows a September 2023 commitment in which council members with operating mines pledged to disclose their refining partners. The new guidance sets out a common reporting format, with exclusions for commercial and security information, and recommends disclosure across the dore-producing industry rather than establishing a legal reporting requirement. It calls for annual disclosure covering the preceding 12 months, though it specifies no first reporting year or publication deadline. Shipment weights would not be required, and transport companies, routes, traders and exporters could remain undisclosed, along with other sensitive commercial details or information that could jeopardize worker safety. Gold shipped as concentrate, carbon fines or low-grade sweepings is excluded.
The stakes were highlighted by investigations into Latin American gold entering North American supply chains. The Royal Canadian Mint pledged to expand sourcing disclosures in April after reporting found that some gold it refined may have come from Colombian cartel-controlled mines, and the Mint said it had suspended refining material from the supply chain in question. Separately, Venezuelan dore shipped to the United States under a Trafigura agreement with state-owned miner Minerven remained in storage because refiners were unwilling to handle it. The council’s framework would make mine-to-refiner relationships public, but the disclosures alone would not establish that gold was responsibly sourced. The guidance names no penalties for failing to disclose.