The Hub · Glossary

The language of responsible gold.

A plain guide to the terms, schemes and mechanisms that come up across this hub and the wider debate on how gold is sourced, refined and sold.

ASGMArtisanal & Small-Scale Gold Mining
Gold mining with hand tools and basic equipment, from informal to formalised. Modelled at 15 to 20% of newly mined gold (a 2017 IGF-origin estimate) and at 10 to 20 million people, depending on the source.
Doré
The semi-refined gold-silver bar poured at a mine or by an aggregator: the form in which gold typically travels to a refiner.
Good Delivery
LBMA accreditation for refiners and the bars they produce. The gold Good Delivery List counted 66 refiners as of July 2026; listing is the de facto passport to the London market.
Chain of custody
Documentation that follows material through the supply chain, whether segregated (the physical gold is kept apart) or claim-based (the responsible-sourcing claim travels on paper).
Book-and-claim
A model that separates the responsible-sourcing claim from the physical metal, so buyers can fund responsible producers without a segregated supply line. Used by Fairmined Credits and the Responsible Gold Credits launched in Tanzania in 2025.
CAHRAConflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas
The areas that trigger enhanced due diligence under the OECD Guidance and the rules built on it, such as the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation.
OECD five steps
The due-diligence cycle of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance and its Gold Supplement (3rd edition, 2016): management systems, risk identification, risk response, independent audit, public reporting. Not law in itself; binding only where a regulator or market standard hard-wires it.
LBMALondon Bullion Market Association
The trade body behind the Good Delivery Lists, the Responsible Gold Guidance, the Disclosure Guidance and the Gold Bar Integrity programme.
RMAPResponsible Minerals Assurance Process
RMI's refiner audit programme. Its gold standard became the first scheme recognised under the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation in October 2025; recognition covers RMAP-audited facilities only.
Cross-recognition
The RMI-LBMA-RJC agreement (policy v2, 2018) to accept one another's gold refiner audits. Of RMI's 94 conformant gold refiners as of July 2026, 57 are conformant via cross-recognition rather than direct audit.
CRAFTCode of Risk mitigation for ASM engaging in Formal Trade
The open-source, OECD-aligned market-entry baseline for ASM gold, by ARM and RESOLVE. Version 2.1 (October 2024) extends scope to aggregators, traders and processors.
Fairmined premium
The extra paid on Fairmined-certified gold: USD 4,000 per kilogram, plus USD 2,000 for the ecological label (scheme figures).
Escalator model
Swiss Better Gold's approach: mines enter at a baseline and step up through improvement stages while selling into the Swiss value chain, with a premium (USD 1.35/g per the 2025 impact report) funding the climb.
Monopsony
A single-buyer market. Ghana's GoldBod (Act 1140, April 2025) makes the state the sole buyer, assayer, exporter and regulator of ASM gold; independent critics contest the model's pricing effects.
Mercury amalgamation
The processing technique that binds gold with mercury before burning it off: the main mercury use in ASGM and the practice targeted by the Minamata Convention.
Minamata NAPNational Action Plan
The plan a party to the Minamata Convention must produce where ASGM is more than insignificant, setting mercury-reduction baselines and measures.
EFPExchange for Physical
The trade linking COMEX gold futures with London physical metal. Tariff fears blew its price gap out by roughly US$40 to 60 per ounce in early 2025.
Country-of-origin reporting
Disclosure of where refined gold was mined. LBMA publishes annual aggregate data; monthly per-refiner reporting into the GBI database is voluntary from April 2026 and mandatory in 2027.
Corroboration rating
The Hub's per-record signal of how well a claim is supported by independent sources: well corroborated, corroborated, single source, or contested.
Freshness stamp
The "Checked" date on every record: when its link and record details were last checked. The Hub's target is no stamp older than 90 days.
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Read the sources behind the terms.

The Library holds the key reports and studies; the Numbers page shows every figure and its spread.