Gold remains a highly prized and impactful resource within the global economy. From the insatiable demand for gold in the electronics that permeate our day-to-day lives to the environmental desolation driven by gold mining in the Amazon, the gold trade continues to touch the lives and livelihoods of people across the world.
Bloomfield and Maconachie tell the intriguing story of the yellow metal, tracing the seismic shifts in the industry over the past few decades. They show how huge purchases of gold reserves by BRICS countries mark the shifting balance of power away from the West, and how rising affluence in India and China has led to a surging demand for gold jewellery, calling into question current approaches to make supply chains more responsible. Explaining why gold is so difficult to regulate and why it is only becoming more so, the authors suggest ways we could, collectively, make practices work better for the countless workers and communities who suffer at the producer end of the supply chain. Linking local to global, producer to consumer, and gold’s extraction from the Earth to the financial centres that fuel it, this book offers a probing analysis that reveals who wins and who loses and what this means for the future of gold.Table of Contents
AcknowledgementsAbbreviations
1 Introduction
Gold’s continuing relevance
Gold’s continuing allure
Outline of the book
Notes
2 Gold and the Distortions of Development
Gold rushes and nation-building: the rise and fall of empires
Colonial expansion: God, glory and gold!
Gold and power: states and capital markets
The recent scramble for gold
Feeding the dragon: Chinese engagement in the gold mining sector
Gold and the resource curse
Revenue sharing at the local level
Ecological impacts
The gold-conflict nexus
Conclusion
Notes
3 An Intractable Industry
Complexity in the supply and the demand for gold
Gold and regulatory failure:the case of Bre-X Minerals
Conclusion
Notes
4 Gold Governance and Gaps
States and international organisations
Civil society and the private sector
Transnational activism: the case of the No Dirty Gold campaign Opportunities and challenges:a lesson in business power?
The market responds: enter certification and Fairtrade
Conflict-free gold supply chains and the traceability agenda
Disclosure regulation: the case of Dodd-Frank and the DRC
Blockchain and ‘track and trace’ technology
Conclusion: can ‘ethical gold’ make a difference?
Notes
5 Rising Powers in Supply and Demand
Financialisation and financial markets for gold
Emerging power in supply and demand
BRICS and gold
The Chinese gold market
The Indian gold market
Shifting implications for responsible gold?
Conclusion
Notes
6 Conclusion: Refocusing for the Future of Gold
Considering the future of gold
ASGM as a driver of (sustainable) development
Taking stock and moving forward
Notes
Selected Readings
Index
