The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) has been sued for certifying gold sold by Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp from an African mine as “responsibly sourced,” with claimants alleging it is tainted owing to human rights abuses.

The suit was brought by the families of two Tanzanians who were allegedly killed at Barrick’s North Mara gold mine in 2019, after a confrontation between the men, who had trespassed in search of gold left in waste piles, and police.

Leigh Day, the law firm acting for the Tanzanians, said in a legal brief that LBMA allegedly breached its duty by giving its stamp of approval to gold sold by Barrick, “despite a systematic pattern of serious human rights abuses at North Mara spanning for many years.”

LBMA is an international trade association that includes the majority of central banks that stockpile bullion, as well as gold producers and refiners...

Barrick isn’t a party to the lawsuit against LBMA, but in a release on Tuesday, the company nonetheless defended its record in Tanzania as a responsible operator, and distanced itself from any direct involvement in alleged abuses at the mine ...

In that lawsuit, Tanzanians living in communities around the North Mara mine, in the northern part of the country, accused the police of five deaths, five injuries and five incidents of torture at the mine. The suit claimed that Barrick is responsible, and alleged that the police are paid and equipped by the Canadian miner under a formal agreement ...

Barrick’s CEO on Tuesday also attacked Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID), a U.K.-based human rights corporate watchdog, saying it has spread misinformation about North Mara.