Golden Opportunity - Building an industry commitment to conflict-free gold production
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The launch of the World Gold Council's Conflict-Free Gold Standard comes at a time when mineral extraction is under closer scrutiny than ever. Recent guidance on governance and standards from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and rulings for the disclosure of the use of conflict minerals from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) put gold producers under mounting pressure to improve the quality and consistency of due diligence in this area.
The Conflict-Free Gold Standard is designed to drive boards to decide on their approach to compliance. It provides a basis for principles based industry self-regulation including independent, third party assurance on implementation that is globally applicable.
To coincide with the launch of the Conflict-Free Gold Standard, we have published two documents:
- Our Viewpoint Report, in which we evaluate the World Gold Council’s approach in the context of its objective to develop an industry led standard to increase investor confidence in buying gold, and in so doing to ‘operationalise’ the OECD’s Due Diligence Guidance and particularly its supporting Gold Supplement.
- A comparative study which sets out the alignments and differences between the World Gold Council's Conflict-Free Gold Standard and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance, particularly focusing on the OECD's Gold Supplement.
Our reports can be used by companies implementing the Conflict-Free Gold Standard to consider how their approach aligns with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance and by stakeholders with an interest in this area to understand the contribution the World Gold Council has made to delivering an industry-led programme to support investor confidence in gold.
