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Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) used the Dubai Precious Metals Conference 2025 to highlight the responsible sourcing and compliance framework now underpinning Zimbabwe’s gold value chain, positioning the country for greater acceptance in international bullion markets, Mining Zimbabwe can report.
By Ryan Chigoche
Now in its thirteenth edition, the Dubai Precious Metals Conference (DPMC) remains a leading platform for strategic dialogue, policy insight, and market intelligence.
This year’s event comes amid rapid change in the precious metals sector, where surging prices, trade tensions, and digital disruption are reshaping supply chains.
From asset tokenisation to AI integration, the pace of transformation is unprecedented, making compliance, traceability, and responsible sourcing more critical than ever.
Against this backdrop, FPR General Manager Peter Magaramombe presented the Zimbabwean refiner’s initiatives, showing how domestic reforms align with global standards.
He highlighted efforts focused on transparency, risk management, and OECD-aligned due diligence, describing them as part of a broader push to modernise Zimbabwe’s refining sector and strengthen confidence in the origin of Zimbabwean gold.
Magaramombe announced that the FPR Board had approved a Responsible Sourcing and Supply Chain Management Policy, now publicly available on the company website.
The policy signals the refinery’s commitment to global compliance expectations and raising the bar for supply chain governance in Zimbabwe.
In a market where refiners and global exchanges increasingly demand proof of provenance, the origin of gold has become as important as its purity.
Heightened scrutiny over illicit flows, conflict financing, and ESG compliance has prompted hubs such as Dubai to require verifiable records from all upstream suppliers.
For Zimbabwe, demonstrating a clean, traceable, and well-governed supply chain is essential to maintain competitiveness, protect export channels, and secure market confidence.
To meet these expectations, Magaramombe outlined a series of compliance measures implemented across the value chain. FPR has rolled out a blockchain-based mine-to-market traceability system in partnership with Commstack.
This system creates immutable digital records, strengthening verification and reducing opportunities for illicit gold movements.
FPR has also established a fully fledged Compliance Department, led by a Senior Compliance Officer, to oversee risk management processes and ensure adherence to international norms.
As part of its due diligence, the refinery has assessed all upstream suppliers, mapping risks linked to conflict financing, human rights abuses, and regulatory breaches. These assessments are consolidated into an institutional risk register, categorised into low, medium, and high-risk ratings.
Response strategies are guided by an enterprise-wide risk management system, ensuring mitigation measures are proportional to risk.
These include mandatory customer due diligence, verification of source of funds, proof of mining rights, strict anti-money laundering protocols, and detailed customer profiling before onboarding.
FPR’s framework is independently validated through annual onsite inspections by the Financial Intelligence Unit and periodic reviews by external assurance providers, consistently earning positive assessments.
The refinery has also integrated its supply chain due diligence into annual ESG and sustainability reporting, reinforcing transparency across the gold value chain and supporting Zimbabwe’s broader alignment with global responsible sourcing standards.
Magaramombe said these measures collectively position FPR to meet international market expectations, prioritising traceability and accountability while building confidence in the provenance of Zimbabwean gold.
The 2025 conference, themed “The Future of Precious Metals: Tariffs, Tokenisation and Trade Flows,” provided an ideal backdrop to showcase Zimbabwe’s progress.
The event brought together industry leaders, policymakers, financiers, and technologists to explore where geopolitics and tariffs intersect with new mining partnerships, the evolving roles of bullion banks and trading companies, and Dubai’s continued rise as a global hub for precious metals, supported by record gold trade and a growing eastward shift in market influence.
