Posted 14/09/2026

Mining Technology recently published an insightful piece on how Australia’s gold refiners are protecting their global position.

Australia’s two primary refiners, the Perth Mint and ABC Refinery, are both LBMA accredited and both produce four nines bullion. Gold export earnings rose 42% in 2024-25 to A$47 billion, with A$69 billion forecast for this year.

That position is not without pressures – complex supply chains, lower-grade ore, volatile energy costs and some of the most demanding compliance standards in the world.

We would like to thank Eve Thomas and Mining Technology for highlighting Source Certain, as well as Dave Woodford and ABC Refinery for emphasising the need to address the challenges within this complex supply chain. The article covers Source Certain’s work in applying origin verification to map mine-to-market supply chains and manage material risk around responsible sourcing. Source Certain provides an important verification step to ABC Refinery’s sourcing policy, helping ensure that the origin of gold delivered to the refinery is checked with the purpose of building trusted supply chains from known locations.

The discussion around origin risk in gold supply chains is particularly important.

There is no basis for any commitment to ethical and responsible sourcing without confidence in the origin of incoming gold.

For any operator moving material that, at best, does not satisfy responsible sourcing standards, and at worst, is illicit, the objective remains the same: get the gold into the legal supply chain and turn it into cash. Ultimately, this cash flows from end customers, including banks and governments.

Because entering the legal chain is mission critical for these operators, the posture a refinery adopts at the delivery point must reflect that motivation and intent.

Secondary gold presents a multitude of access points for poorly sourced and illegal material. The barrier to entry is low relative to the reward, allowing a supply chain to be established quickly. Any decision to accept secondary gold must be considered in that context, and every transaction can require a different evaluation of risk.

Primary gold is not without risk either. The difference is that a barrier to entry exists, and it is possible to argue that large-scale mining sits lower on the risk curve. However, this must be balanced against the fact that poorly sourced material can be blended and washed into these chains at scale, with nothing on paper to indicate it is happening. Investigations have found cases where gold sourced under conflict was smuggled out of the country and then processed through a gold mining operation.

Ultimately, the motivation, intent, and reward are direct indicators of gold entering the refinery network. This requires a risk posture built to identify such activity.

In the end, it comes down to supply-chain transparency from mine to market: what is the actual origin of the gold, and wherere did it come out of the ground?

Source Certain verifies the geographic origin of gold, replacing uncertainty with scientific evidence and giving refineries stronger assurance over the provenance of material entering their supply chains. Our targeted verification programmes integrate with existing due diligence and responsible sourcing processes, making it practical to independently verify higher-risk material, strengthen sourcing decisions and turn origin verification into a strategic advantage.

Contact us for a confidential conversation about your supply chain today.