RJC CoC 2017 — The Current Chain of Custody Standard
RJC CoC 2017 — The Current Chain of Custody Standard
The 2017 revision of the Responsible Jewellery Council's precious-metals traceability standard, aligned with OECD due-diligence guidance
RJC CoC 2017 is the current operative version of the Responsible Jewellery Council's Chain of Custody standard for precious metals, superseding the original 2012 issue. The revision was published in 2017 after a multi-year consultation with refiners, manufacturers, retailers, and civil-society stakeholders. It tightened the audit framework, clarified eligibility for recycled and artisanal material, and brought the standard into closer alignment with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.
What the 2017 revision changed
The 2017 standard expanded the categories of eligible feed material. Recycled metal had been treated cautiously in the 2012 standard; the 2017 revision provided clearer criteria distinguishing genuinely recycled material from material laundered through recycling claims. Artisanal and small-scale mining was given a defined pathway to eligibility, contingent on documented due diligence rather than blanket exclusion. The standard also strengthened audit protocols, including more detailed requirements for mass-balance reconciliation and for documentation of custody transfers between certified parties.
Alignment with OECD guidance
A central objective of the revision was alignment with the OECD's five-step due-diligence framework for responsible mineral supply chains. The OECD framework had become the reference text for major regulators, including the European Union's Conflict Minerals Regulation and the US Securities and Exchange Commission's conflict-minerals rule under Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act. RJC CoC 2017 cross-references the OECD steps explicitly, allowing certified members to leverage their RJC audit work in regulatory filings.
Material scope
The 2017 standard covers gold, silver, palladium, and platinum. Diamonds and coloured gemstones are addressed under the separate RJC Code of Practices and are outside the scope of CoC. The four covered metals share the property that physical custody can be documented through identifiable lots from refining through manufacture, which is the technical precondition for any meaningful chain-of-custody claim.
Implementation cycle
Members certified under the 2012 standard were given a transition period to align with the 2017 requirements. Today, all RJC CoC certifications operate to the 2017 standard. The Council periodically reviews the standard and is expected to issue further revisions on a roughly five-year cadence, tracking developments in the OECD guidance, in EU and US regulation, and in stakeholder expectations.
In the trade
For dealers transacting CoC-certified material, the relevant document is the certificate referencing the 2017 standard, and the relevant verification is the chain of certificates from refinery downward. Material certified under the original 2012 standard would now be considered out of date; legitimate certificates today reference the 2017 revision. The next revision, when issued, will follow the same transition pattern, with a defined period during which both the existing and the new standard remain valid.