The World Gold Council today announces that, working together with its member companies and the leading gold refiners, it has produced a draft framework of standards designed to combat gold that enables, fuels or finances armed conflict. The draft standards...are designed to enable miners to produce a stream of newly-mined gold which is certified as ‘conflict free’ on a global basis. The ‘conflict free gold’ and ‘chain of custody’ standards set out a framework for tracking conflict-free gold from the mine to the end of the refining process and a framework for ensuring that where gold is mined in a conflict or high-risk zone, its production or transportation does not finance or benefit armed groups...[The] standards are currently being ‘stress-tested’ by leading gold mining companies and refineries...