Colombia Urges Blood Diamond-Style Controls for Gold Buyers
- Central banks may have bought illegally-mined precious metal
- Less than a fifth of Colombia’s gold is produced legally
A person illegally mines for gold at a site in the Department of Choco near the city of Quibdo, Colombia, on Nov. 11, 2016.
Photographer: Nicolo Filippo Rosso/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Colombia is calling for tougher controls over international gold purchases to curb the amount of illegally-mined metal entering mainstream markets, following similar moves by the diamond industry.
“There’s a responsibility on the part of buyers to make certain what the origin of the gold is that they are acquiring,” Colombian Mining and Energy Minister German Arce said. “My fear is that there’s a lot of illegally-extracted gold that ends up in central bank vaults.”