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Thank you
Thank you to those individuals and organisations who have let us have their views about the draft 'conflict free gold' standards
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Thank you
We will be taking the consultation forward through a series of meetings and roundtables in the coming weeks.
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Thank you
We will keep you updated through this website on the conclusions reached through this process
The World Gold Council believes that the mining of gold should be a source of economic and social development wherever it is found and that any possibility of gold funding conflict must be eradicated. Our Member companies, together with a range of stakeholders, have been working to devise a system to identify how newly-mined gold can be certified as ‘conflict free’ and so aim to exclude ‘conflict gold’ from the market. The framework is designed to be applicable to armed conflicts globally and responds both to the requirements of section 1502 of the US Dodd-Frank Act and of the emerging OECD gold supplement to their Guidance on the Responsible Sourcing of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High Risk Areas. The conflict-free gold standard will track gold from the mine to the refinery.
Following a period of testing by member companies, a draft of the framework was published for consultation on 17th June 2011 (see below). Written comments were then received from a wide range of stakeholders amongst governments, international organisations, civil society organisations, expert groups, ethical investors, gold supply chain participants and members of the public. The World Gold Council then asked three respected independent organisations to host roundtable meetings at which stakeholders could debate aspects of the standards. Follow the links below to read reports of the roundtables:
- New York, September 7th (hosted by the Fund for Peace)
- London, September 15th (hosted by Chatham House)
- Johannesburg, October 5th (hosted by the South African Institute for International Affairs)
The following organisations participated in one or more of the roundtables:
| ACCORD | Global Compact Network South Africa | Jewelers Vigilance Committee |
| African Barrick Gold | Global Witness | KPMG |
| African Conflict Prevention Programme | Ghana Minerals Commission | Metalor |
| AngloGold Ashanti | Goldcorp | Newmont |
| Association for Responsible Mining | Gold Fields Ltd | Overseas Development Institute |
| Barrick Gold | Government of Canada (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) | Partnership Africa Canada |
| Brinks Global Services | Government of Ghana (Ministry of Land and Resources) | Rand Refinery |
| Chatham House | Government of South Africa (DTI) | Responsible Jewellery Council |
| Cicero Consulting | Government of United Kingdom (FCO) | Richline |
| Columbia University | Government of United States of America (State Department) | South African Institute for International Affairs |
| Digby Wells Environmental | HSBC plc | Southern African Resource Watch |
| Enough Project | International Committee of the Red Cross | Synergy Consulting |
| Ernst and Young | International Conference on the Great Lakes Region | STR Responsible Sourcing |
| Environmental Resources Management | International Council on Mining and Metals |
Tiffany & Co |
| Fair Trade Foundation | International Institute for the Environment and Development | United Nations Panel of Experts on the DRC |
| Fund for Peace | IPC – the Association of Connecting Industries | World Gold Council |
| G4S International Logistics | Jewelers of America |
The World Gold Council is grateful to all those who have shared their views with us in writing, in meetings or at roundtables. We are currently consolidating the inputs received and will be publishing a revised version of the conflict-free gold framework in the New Year. If, in the meantime you have additional comments that you would like to submit then please email us at conflictfreestandards@gold.org
For reference, below are the two draft standards that were released for review on 17th June 2011: