Industry Insights

Here at the World Gold Council, we are working to ensure gold, which has been an integral part of financial systems for hundreds of years, continues to have an important role in the future.

The gold industry is going through a period of significant change, including the important steps that are being taken by gold miners to disclose the refineries to which they send their gold.

The commitment to uploading core provenance data onto the Gold Bar Integrity platform will support the integrity of the gold supply chain. This will not only help anybody who is looking to purchase this gold to have confidence that they can do so in line with their responsible sourcing commitments, but also underpin the creation of digitalised gold products, a new area of growth and innovation that we at the WGC are very excited about.

The first such event, in 2022, was significant in not only signalling the closer, more co-operative relationship between our two organisations that has developed over recent years, but also the wider move to greater collaboration across the whole gold supply chain.

This month in Dakar, Senegal, supporters of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) gathered to mark the twentieth anniversary of the initiative and to chart a course for the coming years.

If responsibly mined, gold mining can contribute to the socio-economic development of the countries they operate in.

We have just published the latest in the ‘gold and climate change’ research series subtitled ‘decarbonising investment portfolios’. This, the fourth of our climate-focused reports, builds on our previous work to quantify gold’s carbon footprint and its decarbonisation pathway. Combining these ‘building blocks’ has provided us with a fairly rounded and detailed perspective on gold’s relationship with climate change.

“Our vision is not health for some; it’s not health for most; It’s health for all!“  So said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General at the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the United Nations General Assembly 74th Session in September 2019. Given recent events, a continued focus on universal health and well-being has never been as important as it is today.

Last month we participated in the Responsible Asset Owners Global Symposium. We have been a supporter of this event series since its inception in 2019 as it brings together leading investors to tackle important topics around the ESG agenda within the investment community.

Last month, we held a webinar with S&P Global and our Members at which S&P presented their Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA). Many of our Members already submit the CSA and this was an opportunity to review industry data from past assessments and discuss how elements of the RGMPs could potentially be incorporated into their methodology going forward.

We’ve had an opportunity to speak to Philipa Varris, Executive Vice President, Head of Sustainability at Golden Star to dig deep into the company’s achievements when it comes to contributing to SDG 3 (Good Health) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).

We recently brought together a panel, in partnership with the LBMA, to discuss 'Improving the position of responsible Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Miners – the role of Central Banks and other constructive actors'. Watch the discussion.