Record gold prices are drawing more people into artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), amplifying social and environmental risks and creating openings for illicit finance, World Gold Council chief strategy officer Terry Heymann says.
Giving responsible small miners access to formal markets – “no kids in the mine, no mercury” – is central to the council’s current formulation of a new global mining standard, Heymann said last month at Mining Forum Americas in Colorado Springs.
“Why don’t we have a single mining standard that speaks to responsible mining across commodities, across geographies and, critically, across company size – so that everybody in this industry can demonstrate that they are operating responsibly,” he told The Northern Miner’s Western Editor, Henry Lazenby.
ASGM can account for up to one-fifth of the global newly mined supply annually and involve millions of people, implying weak oversight in low-governance regions, Heymann said. Shared processing plants that eliminate mercury and improve recoveries could align economics with better practices and help channel output into refineries that meet international standards, he suggested.
Heymann also outlined work on “pooled gold interests,” a legally strong, physically backed structure designed to let institutions hold fractional interests in vaulted gold while improving collateralization and settlement finality.
Watch the full interview below:
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