Due diligence became the gate
The LBMA's Responsible Sourcing and Responsible Gold Guidance frameworks require accredited refiners to evidence the origin of every input. The practical consequence for African producers is that a licence, a survey and a documented transport chain are the entry ticket to the refined market, not a nice-to-have.
Operators who cannot produce that trail sell into the informal market at a discount, and increasingly cannot sell at all to the counterparties that matter.
Where medium-scale operators sit
Medium-scale concessions are the interesting middle. They are mechanised enough to keep records, small enough to move quickly, and typically operate on ground that artisanal workings have already proven. Those who have invested in door-to-refinery logistics and chain-of-custody documentation, Burlcore Mining's Busia operation among them, now hold a genuine commercial moat rather than a compliance cost centre.
The investment read
We would treat verified reserves plus documented custody as the two variables that most reliably separate financeable East African gold assets from the rest. Neither is glamorous. Both are increasingly decisive.