The LBMA Responsible Gold Guidance, generally abbreviated RGG, is the supply-chain due-diligence standard that all refiners on the LBMA's Good Delivery List must implement and pass third-party audit on annually in order to remain on the list. It was first issued in 2012, has been updated several times since (most substantively in 2017 and 2021), and has become the operational definition of "responsibly sourced" refined gold for most large downstream actors including major jewellery houses and the Responsible Jewellery Council.

The Guidance is built on the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, applied to the specific case of gold. Refiners are required to identify their entire supply base, classify each supplier by risk, conduct enhanced due diligence on higher-risk flows (including, in particular, mined-in-conflict-zone material, recycled material from politically-exposed jurisdictions, and any flow involving cash or unconventional settlement), and to document and report the resulting findings annually. They are further required to refuse, suspend or remediate any supplier that fails the due diligence test, and to publish a public-facing compliance report each year.

The audit is carried out by independent assurance firms drawn from a panel of LBMA-approved auditors, against a defined audit programme. A failed audit results either in remediation requirements with a defined timeline or, in serious cases, in suspension or removal from the Good Delivery List. Removal is rare but consequential: the refiner loses its access to the London bar pool and to most of its institutional buyer base.

For the jewellery trade, the practical importance of RGG is that it allows downstream buyers (jewellers, luxury houses, retailers) to source refined gold from LBMA-listed refiners and inherit the upstream due diligence that the refiner has already carried out and had audited. This is the structural reason why "LBMA Responsible Gold Guidance compliant" appears on so many luxury supply-chain disclosures, and it is also the reason why a small jeweller buying casting grain from a major LBMA-listed refinery has a defensible due-diligence position even without conducting its own mine-by-mine audit.