London Bullion Market Association to Launch Task Force to Bolster Artisanal Gold

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) announced its intention to support artisanal gold. The move is aimed at augmenting the supply of gold into mainstream trade and helping to improve the living conditions of small-scale miners, majority of whom belong to developing countries.

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Ruth Crowell, Chief Executive, LBMA said that a task force will be launched soon to discuss issues pertaining to source gold from companies that obtain gold from small-scale miners in bulk quantity. In addition, it also plans to engage with the national government of countries such as Ivory Coast and Ghana, where artisanal gold mining is rampant, towards formulation of better regulatory frameworks to streamline small-scale mining operations.

An earlier study commissioned by the UK-based gold body has proposed creation of additional ‘good delivery list’ to include aggregators or refiners who collect gold from artisanal miners in a responsible manner and resell them in bulk. Incidentally, the existing ‘good delivery list’ by the LBMA does not accept artisanal gold due to their alleged link with human rights violation, terrorism and pollution.

The artisanal mining activities generate approximately 700 tonnes of gold a year, thus accounting for almost one-fifth of the globally mined gold.