At Valcambi we give the highest priority to transparency, and meet and go beyond the most stringent industry standards of traceability in compliance with all the principle responsible sourcing frameworks. These include international regulations and voluntary standards and guidance such as the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, the LBMA Responsible Guidances on precious metals, the Responsible Jewellery Council Code of Practice and Chain of Custody Standards, World Gold Council “Conflict-Free Gold Standard” and the Dodd-Frank Act Section 1502.
To ensure those standards are respected and upheld we conduct extensive due diligence practices to identify and select our business partners. These include risk assessments covering White Collar related crimes risks including money laundering and Human Rights related crimes risks related to working conditions and child labour.
Our due diligence practices are not restricted to our first counterparty and cover where needed multiple levels along the supply chain up to the origin of the precious metals.
We aim to go beyond compliance-based due diligence where necessary, and review on an ongoing basis our compliance systems and procedures, and our counterparties assessment as part of our continuous improvement processes.
For all of our products we have a documentary based traceability system in place and audits on our practices are performed by third parties on regular basis. We also conduct on-the-ground visits and ‘spot checks’ to assess and verify the responsible practices of our counterparties.
Our responsible sourcing model has raised the interest of other actors in the gold and other minerals sectors who are looking to learn from us. We always welcome sharing best practices so that our systems benefit the entire industry. In turn, we can learn from other players since responsible practices is a continuous process.