Gold remains a highly prized and impactful resource within the global economy. From the insatiable demand for gold in the electronics that permeate our day-to-day lives to the environmental desolation driven by gold mining in the Amazon, the gold trade continues to touch the lives and livelihoods of people across the world. Bloomfield and Maconachie tell the intriguing story of the yellow metal, tracing the seismic shifts in the industry over the past few decades. They show how huge purchases of gold reserves by BRICS countries mark the shifting balance of power away from the West, and how rising affluence in India and China has led to a surging demand for gold jewellery, calling into question current approaches to make supply chains more responsible. Explaining why gold is so difficult to regulate and why it is only becoming more so, the authors suggest ways we could, collectively, make practices work better for the countless workers and communities who suffer at the producer end of the supply chain. Linking local to global, producer to consumer, and gold's extraction from the Earth to the financial centres that fuel it, this book offers a probing analysis that reveals who wins and who loses and what this means for the future of gold.

Michael Bloomfield is Assistant Professor in International Development at the University of Bath.
Roy Maconachie is Professor of Natural Resources and Development at the University of Bath.

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

1 Introduction

Gold's continuing relevance

Gold's continuing allure

Outline of the book

Notes

2 Gold and the Distortions of Development

Gold rushes and nation-building: the rise and fall of empires

Colonial expansion: God, glory and gold!

Gold and power: states and capital markets

The recent scramble for gold

Feeding the dragon: Chinese engagement in the gold mining sector

Gold and the resource curse

Revenue sharing at the local level

Ecological impacts

The gold-conflict nexus

Conclusion

Notes

3 An Intractable Industry

Complexity in the supply and the demand for gold

Gold and regulatory failure:the case of Bre-X Minerals

Conclusion

Notes

4 Gold Governance and Gaps

States and international organisations

Civil society and the private sector

Transnational activism: the case of the No Dirty Gold campaign Opportunities and challenges:a lesson in business power?

The market responds: enter certification and Fairtrade

Conflict-free gold supply chains and the traceability agenda

Disclosure regulation: the case of Dodd-Frank and the DRC

Blockchain and 'track and trace' technology

Conclusion: can 'ethical gold' make a difference?

Notes

5 Rising Powers in Supply and Demand

Financialisation and financial markets for gold

Emerging power in supply and demand

BRICS and gold

The Chinese gold market

The Indian gold market

Shifting implications for responsible gold?

Conclusion

Notes

6 Conclusion: Refocusing for the Future of Gold

Considering the future of gold

ASGM as a driver of (sustainable) development

Taking stock and moving forward

Notes

Selected Readings

Index