Traceability
The best possible approach to one of the industry’s most challenging ambitions: ensuring the traceability of precious metals from mine to market.
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What is traceability?
Traceability refers to the ability to track the provenance, location, and movement of precious metals from raw material to the final product. It is crucial in the precious metals industry as it allows us to document and verify each step from mining, refining, and manufacturing to the final products, ensuring responsibility at every stage.
Ensuring traceability is fundamental to:
- Secure authenticity of precious metals products
- Ensure the legitimate and responsible origin of precious metals
- Comply with international and local regulations and standards
- Better monitor and regulate mining activities
- Foster transparency, responsibility and trust in the precious metals market
- Improve sustainable practices in the industry
- Contribute to conscious investment decisions
Despite its critical importance, achieving traceability is not always straightforward. Traditionally reliant on paper-based documentation, the process becomes increasingly complex as supply chains grow and involve multiple, sometimes remote, intermediaries. This adds complexity to maintaining consistent and accurate records and increases the risk of tampering. These challenges highlight the urgent need for smarter, more robust solutions that can meet the demands of a globalized market.
The journey of gold
Take gold as an example, before a piece of jewellery or a gold bar reaches the shelf, it has to travel a long and complex journey.
The journey begins with gold mining, a challenging task that requires mining companies to locate deposits, estimate quantities, and assess extraction difficulties.
Environmental assessments are also crucial at this stage to ensure the preservation of local ecosystems and the benefits to the community. Setting up a mining operation involves legal and ethical considerations, infrastructure development, and workforce building, often taking years before the first dig into the earth.
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Traceability of gold in Argor-Heraeus
Ensuring traceability demands significant collaboration and technological innovations. As a world-leading refinery and producer of precious metal products, Argor-Heraeus occupies a unique position as the link between raw materials and the final products. With consumer expectations rising and regulatory scrutiny intensifying, the precious metals industry faces growing pressure to increase transparency and to commit to fair trade—ensuring every product is sourced and produced with respect for people and the planet.
The essential first move: ensuring our own integrity through dedicated production lines
Our commitment to traceability began in the late 2000s, right within our own operations at Argor-Heraeus. We introduced segregated refining and production lines—meaning every batch of material was kept physically separate and processed through its own dedicated path. This gave us full control over the gold we handled, allowing us to trace its origin and movement throughout our facility. By setting this standard early on, Argor-Heraeus became one of the first refineries to take such a decisive step toward transparency and integrity.
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Expanding traceability to the mines with DNA-based solution and geological passport
After securing full traceability within our own operations, we turned our focus to strengthening transparency across the entire value chain. While we have always conducted thorough due diligence on the origin of the gold we process, we recognized the need for a more robust, data-backed approach—one that could scientifically verify and document provenance from the mine onward. Achieving this level of traceability posed new challenges, especially given that many mines are located in remote areas where traditional documentation methods can be difficult to implement and verify.
Our first breakthrough came with the successful introduction of Haelixa’s specialized DNA-based solution. This innovative technology involves applying artificial DNA markers to doré bars—each marker uniquely tied to its respective gold mine. Upon arrival, the gold’s origin can be verified through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. With a proven track record in the textile industry, this technology has swiftly gained recognition in the gold sector.
We then achieved full traceability back to the point of extraction by unlocking the full potential of the data we've collected over decades. As early as 20 years ago, we began analysing the elemental composition of each incoming material using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to compare and verify sources manually. Today, Geological Passport brings this wealth of data into a digitized, automatic and scientific framework. Powered by a sophisticated algorithm, it cross-references historical ore data to provide forensic proof of a gold bar’s origin—making falsification virtually impossible. This level of forensic verification ensures the scientific accuracy of origin claims and effectively prevents the mixing of materials from different sources, allowing us to confirm each bar’s provenance with precision.
Distributed ledger technology creates a secure digital twin
All information regarding material composition, movement details, and refinery steps is securely stored using distributed ledger technology, essentially creating a tamper-proof digital twin of every physical piece of precious metal. By partnering with aXedras, we provide a mine-level provenance record that are immutable and fully verifiable. This allows us to maintain full ownership of origin data and offer full transparency. Both our customers and relevant supervisory bodies can access this data upon request —reinforcing our commitment to responsible sourcing and regulatory compliance.
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Optical authentication empowers instant traceability for investors
The digital twin also enhances our ability to offer additional services to end consumers. Utilizing Alitheon’s technology, thousands of datapoints from the surface of each gold bar are captured to create a unique digital signature for each gold bar, enabling cross-referencing, giving investors easy access to detailed traceability information. With just a few simple steps, they can confirm the authenticity and origin of their gold, while also supporting responsibility in the precious metals industry. Looking ahead, this technology also holds exciting potential for use in jewellery and watches.
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Additionally, we look forward to further advancing our efforts to institutionalize traceability, particularly within the artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) sector. According to a UN report, ASM contributes approximately 700 tonnes of gold annually, a figure that continues to grow. Supporting this sector is a vital part of our commitment to responsibility, as ASM provides livelihoods for millions of people worldwide, often in regions where economic alternatives are limited. However, traceability in ASM is especially challenging due to its informal nature, fragmented operations, and limited access to technology and infrastructure. By working to bring transparency and structure to this part of the supply chain, we not only help improve working conditions and environmental practices but also promote the inclusion of ASM communities in the formal economy.
Traceability continues
Every step we take towards greater traceability is a step towards a more responsible and sustainable future. By integrating responsible practices with cutting-edge technologies, we aim to scale our positive impact across the supply chain. In doing so, we are setting new standards for the industry.
For Argor-Heraeus, achieving traceability of mined gold is just the beginning. Inspired by positive customer feedback, we are exploring the possibilities of expanding these technologies to other precious metals.
We invite you to join us on this exciting mission. Together, we can make a difference and build a future where every piece of precious metal is traced, verified, and responsibly sourced.
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