The Better Gold Initiative (BGI) is a public-private partnership originating in Switzerland that works to improve the social, environmental, and governance conditions of artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM) communities, primarily in Latin America, and to connect those communities with responsible buyers in the Swiss and broader European jewellery and refining industries. Launched in 2013 under the auspices of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland and implemented in partnership with the Swiss Better Gold Association, the programme addresses one of the most persistent structural problems in precious-metal supply chains: the gap between informal or semi-formal mining operations and the certified, traceable sourcing that major refiners and brands increasingly require.

Background and rationale

Artisanal and small-scale mining accounts for an estimated 20 per cent of global gold production and provides livelihoods for roughly 15 million miners worldwide, with many millions more dependants. Despite its economic significance, ASM has historically been characterised by precarious working conditions, mercury use in amalgamation processes, environmental degradation, and limited access to formal financial and commercial systems. These conditions make it difficult for ASM gold to enter certified supply chains, even when the communities involved are willing to adopt better practices.

The BGI was conceived as a transitional mechanism — a structured pathway through which mining organisations that are not yet fully certified can access premium markets, receive technical and organisational capacity-building, and progress toward recognised certification standards such as Fairmined, administered by the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM). In this sense the initiative functions less as a certification body in its own right and more as a development and market-linkage programme that treats certification as a destination rather than a prerequisite.

Structure and governance

The Swiss Better Gold Association, a non-profit body seated in Switzerland, serves as the operational hub of the programme. Its membership includes Swiss gold refiners, jewellery brands, and other industry actors who commit to sourcing a portion of their gold through BGI-linked supply chains and to paying a social premium above spot price. This premium is directed back to the mining communities to fund social projects — schools, health facilities, environmental remediation — chosen by the communities themselves.

SECO's involvement reflects Switzerland's broader development-finance interest in formalising commodity supply chains that originate in lower-income countries. Switzerland is the world's largest hub for gold refining, processing a substantial share of globally traded gold, which gives Swiss-based initiatives particular leverage over supply-chain standards. The BGI has also collaborated with the Swiss import-promotion agency SIPPO and with development finance institutions in partner countries.

Geographic focus and partner communities

The programme's primary operational focus has been the Andean region, with mining organisations in Peru and Bolivia constituting the core partner base. Peru is home to one of the world's largest concentrations of artisanal gold miners, particularly in the Madre de Dios region and in southern highland departments such as Puno and Ayacucho. Bolivia's cooperative mining sector, centred in departments including La Paz and Oruro, has similarly been a target for capacity-building efforts.

Partner mining organisations in these regions undergo a structured assessment and improvement process. The BGI works with them on mercury reduction and eventual elimination, land-use planning, occupational health and safety, and the organisational formalisation — legal registration, internal governance, record-keeping — that is a prerequisite for entry into traceable supply chains. Progress is monitored against defined criteria, and the expectation is that organisations will advance toward Fairmined certification or equivalent recognised standards over time.

Relationship to Fairmined and other standards

The BGI is explicitly designed to be complementary to, rather than competitive with, Fairmined certification. Fairmined sets rigorous third-party-audited standards for responsible mining practice and provides its own premium and market-access benefits; however, achieving full certification requires organisational and technical capacity that many ASM groups cannot demonstrate at the outset. The BGI occupies the pre-certification space, providing the scaffolding — financial, technical, and commercial — that allows organisations to build toward that standard.

In practice, several mining organisations have progressed from BGI participation to Fairmined certification, demonstrating that the pathway model functions as intended. The BGI also acknowledges alignment with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, which has become a reference framework for European refiners and brands navigating responsible-sourcing obligations.

Market linkages and the jewellery trade

On the demand side, the BGI has engaged Swiss refiners — including some of the largest in the world by throughput — as well as Swiss and European jewellery brands. Participating brands commit to sourcing BGI gold and to communicating that sourcing to their customers, typically as part of broader responsible-sourcing or sustainability narratives. The social premium paid by buyers is a tangible financial transfer, not merely a reputational benefit, and its deployment is documented and reported.

For jewellery brands, participation in the BGI offers a credible, documented connection to artisanal mining communities at a time when consumer and regulatory scrutiny of supply-chain ethics is intensifying. The European Union's Conflict Minerals Regulation, which came into force in 2021, and broader ESG (environmental, social, and governance) reporting requirements have accelerated corporate interest in programmes that provide traceable, auditable sourcing narratives. The BGI's documentation and reporting infrastructure supports this need.

Environmental dimension

Mercury pollution is among the most serious environmental consequences of artisanal gold mining globally. The Minamata Convention on Mercury, to which Switzerland is a party, commits signatory states to reducing and where feasible eliminating mercury use in ASM. The BGI incorporates mercury-reduction programming as a core element of its capacity-building work, providing training in alternative processing techniques — including gravity concentration and direct smelting — and supporting the transition away from amalgamation. Environmental monitoring and land rehabilitation are also addressed in the programme's community engagement activities.

Limitations and critiques

Responsible-sourcing programmes operating in ASM contexts face inherent challenges of verification and scale. The BGI's transitional model depends on the willingness and capacity of mining organisations to sustain improvement trajectories, and progress can be disrupted by price volatility, political instability, or the entry of informal buyers offering higher short-term prices without social or environmental conditions attached. Critics of market-linkage approaches more broadly have noted that premiums, while meaningful, may be insufficient to offset the structural economic pressures that drive non-compliant behaviour in gold-rich but infrastructure-poor regions.

The BGI is also, by design, a relatively small-scale intervention relative to the total volume of ASM gold produced globally. Its value lies in demonstrating a replicable model and in generating documented case studies of successful formalisation, rather than in transforming the sector at scale through its own operations alone.

Significance for the jewellery industry

For gemmologists, jewellers, and buyers seeking to understand the provenance and ethical credentials of gold in jewellery, the Better Gold Initiative represents one of a small number of credible, documented mechanisms for connecting finished goods to responsible artisanal mining practice. Alongside Fairmined and the Responsible Jewellery Council's chain-of-custody certification, it forms part of an emerging architecture of responsible sourcing that is reshaping expectations in the fine jewellery trade. As supply-chain transparency becomes both a regulatory requirement and a consumer expectation, familiarity with programmes such as the BGI is increasingly relevant to professional practice in the sector.

Further reading

• Swiss Better Gold Association — bettergold.org
• Alliance for Responsible Mining — Fairmined Standard
• OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains