Responsibilitiy is golden!

On 19.01. the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) once again organized a learning and networking event in its Responsible Gold series. Committed and interested representatives from the private sector, civil soceity, politics and academia had the opportunity to exchange views on the challenges and opportunities for responsible gold sourcing.

The event series belongs to the activities of the Responsible Gold Forum (External link) (website in German) which is coordinated by the BGR and funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The full-day event brought together stakeholders from various sectors who are committed to sustainable gold mining and responsible gold sourcing. Actors from small businesses and industry, trade, consultancies, civil soceity, research, politics and public administration had the chance to gain in-depth insights into the challenges and solutions of the gold sector and engage with one another.

The excellent presentations profoundly covered diverse aspects of responsible gold supply chains:

• Diana Culillas from the Swiss Better Gold Association set the context of global mining and discussed the implications of the current gold price boom from the perspective of mid- and downstream industry seeking to source responsibly.
• Reporting from his long-standing research in Ghana, Augustine Gyan from the University of Bayreuth gave some tangible insights into the intricate interrelations of informal small-scale gold mining and industrial large-scale gold mining on the ground. Against this background, he discussed the intervention logic of formalization attempts.
• Abibatou Ahne from CARECIM presented one of the few formalized small-scale gold mining cooperatives in Senegal. She demonstrated their approach to overcoming the vicious cycle of lacking resources for the professionalization of artisanal operations, allowing miners to transition to formal business models.
• Saidou Kabre from the Artisanal Gold Council and Yann Lebrat from IMPACT presented their respective projects from Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, both kindly funded by the European Partnership for Responsible Minerals (EPRM). They highlighted the particular consideration of traders when building responsibly supply chains, within the different regulatory contexts of their projects.

If you want to remain informed about current events of the Responsible Gold Forum, get on our mailing list by sending us a short message: goldofrum@bgr.de (External link)

We already have a next highlight: The Responsible Gold Forum will be present at the Inhorgenta, Europe's leading industry fair on jewelry, watches and gemstones, taking place Feb 20-23 in Munich. You will find our booth in the sustainability area.