UK: Thirty people join claim against London Bullion Market Association over certification of gold from Tanzania’s North Mara mine as responsibly sourced
"New allegations of killing and torture by security forces at African gold mine as 30 people join legal claim against the London Bullion Market Association over “clean gold” certification", 9 July 2026
The allegations by 30 people living near the North Mara mine include claims of killings, gunshot injuries and torture in incidents alleged to have taken place between December 2022 and March 2024, some involving children...
...All the claimants allege that the LBMA, which oversees the London gold market - the largest gold market in the world - is wrongly certifying gold sourced from the mine as untainted by serious human rights abuses.
The LBMA continues to certify gold sourced from North Mara mine as “Good Delivery” gold under its “Responsible Gold” standard. This is despite the mine being associated with a widely reported pattern of systematic human rights abuses over many years...
...The claimants argue that as a certifying body, the LBMA owes a duty of care to victims of alleged human rights abuses in supply chains that it certifies, and that the organisation has failed to properly enforce its own policies and guidelines. The claimants allege that the LBMA has effectively greenwashed these systemic human rights abuses from what has been named as one of the deadliest mines in Africa. They further argue that the LBMA’s certification scheme has allowed these human rights abuses to continue for years, leading to the injuries and deaths of the victims. The legal claim seeks to establish that a certification body, like the LBMA, can be held legally responsible for a flawed certification process which causes or contributes to ongoing human rights abuses...
...The LBMA denies liability, saying that it takes allegations of human rights abuses in the gold industry extremely seriously. The LBMA maintains that the alleged fatalities at the North Mara Mine are unrelated to its role in the London bullion market because it has no role in accrediting mines, no personnel based in Tanzania, and no control or oversight of operations at North Mara Mine.