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The Global Gold Transparency Initiative is a collective of experts, non-profit organizations, companies and individuals united to focus the world's attention on the humanitarian, political, environmental and economic impacts of gold mining and gold transactions. Among our fundamental goals are responsible and transparent supply chains, mercury-free mining, and the reduction and eventual elimination of illicit activities connected to gold.

Who Is Involved

It started with a question:

Could Russia use the jewelry industry as a conduit to convert their gold reserves and mined gold to cash to fund their war effort?

So an email went out to a group of experts known or suspected to have expertise on this topic. We asked them to meet for a discussion about this question and if it represented a real risk. 

And this is who joined the conversation:

  • Amazon Aid Foundation
  • Christina T. Miller Consulting
  • Experts on global anti-illicit trade and security
  • Experts on international gold trade and compliance
  • Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GIATOC)
  • Hill Management Group
  • Jeweler's Vigilance Committee
  • OECD
  • Responsible Jewelry Transformative | The Chicago Responsible Jewelry Conference
  • US State Department
  • US Treasury

What We Did

Throughout the week of February 28 - March 1, 2022, a working group of 12 people explored the question, tested our assumptions, reached out to additional experts, and determined that there is great risk of Russia attempting to use the international jewelry industry to launder its gold.

But gold is notoriously difficult to police. 

We don't want to just sound the alarm (though it is very important to sound the alarm).

We want to prevent jewelry industry funding of Russian military aggression.

So we decided to bring the issue to the industry in the form of an open letter. We believe that if more jewelry businesses understand the risk, we can all work together to mitigate this risk. 

Our Goals

1. Educate the industry about how much gold Russia possesses and how it could get into our jewelry supply chains.

2. Motivate jewelry businesses to take specific actions to prevent Russian gold from entering jewelry supply chains until its current military agression and risk of future aggression ends.

3. Put the international supply chain on notice that jewelry businesses expect transparency, documentation, and due-diligence from all supply chain partners.