Trial of London gold body

At a hearing on Monday 20 January 2025, Mrs Justice May scheduled the four-week trial to begin on the first available date after 29 June 2026. The claim, brought by law firm Leigh Day on behalf of the families of two artisanal miners killed by security forces in 2019 while prospecting for gold at the North Mara Gold Mine, alleges that the LBMA continues to wrongly certify gold from the mine despite a history of human rights abuses.

The families argue that if the LBMA had properly enforced its responsible sourcing programme, the mine would have been compelled to address human rights concerns, preventing their relatives' deaths. The LBMA, which oversees the London gold bullion market where approximately US$230 billion in gold is traded weekly, requires all traded gold bars to come from refiners accredited under its Responsible Sourcing Programme.

The North Mara mine is majority-owned by Canadian multinational Barrick Gold Corporation, with its gold refined by MMTC-PAMP, a Swiss-Indian company accredited by the LBMA since 2014. The LBMA denies liability, stating that the claims regarding the fatalities do not align with its responsibilities. Barrick Gold also denies allegations of human rights abuses at the mine.

Last year, the LBMA challenged the jurisdiction of the English courts, arguing that Tanzania was the more appropriate venue for the case. The families opposed this, asserting that victims face significant barriers to justice in Tanzania. The LBMA withdrew its jurisdiction challenge five weeks before a scheduled hearing, delaying proceedings by almost a year.

Leigh Day international team partner Daniel Leader said after a significant delay caused by the LBMA’s withdrawn jurisdiction challenge, the legal claim is now back on track, with a trial scheduled in 2026. Our clients look forward to seeking justice for the deaths of their relatives. They want to know how gold from the mine where their loved ones were killed, and where systemic human rights abuses have been reported for more than a decade, is repeatedly being certified as meeting the LBMA’s responsible sourcing standards.

Civil society groups including RAID, Global Witness and SWISSAID have repeatedly criticised the LBMA’s Responsible Sourcing Programme for failing to curb human rights abuses and illicit gold in supply chains. In 2020 and 2022, corporate watchdog RAID submitted reports urging the LBMA to act against tainted gold from North Mara. NGOs have reported over 100 killings or incidents of serious violence linked to the mine between 2009 and 2022, leading to multiple legal actions against Barrick Gold in English and Canadian courts.