UK: Trial of London Bullion Market Association to go ahead at High Court following alleged human rights abuses at African gold mine
"Trial of the London Bullion Market Association to go ahead at the High Court next year following alleged human rights abuses at African gold mine"
…Mrs Justice May scheduled a four-week trial to begin at the High Court on the first available date after 29 June 2026.
The claim against the LBMA is being brought by law firm Leigh Day on behalf of the families of two artisanal miners who were killed by security forces in 2019 while prospecting for gold at the North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania…
The families of two men allege that the LBMA wrongly certified gold sourced from the mine…
The LBMA oversees the London gold bullion market…
The North Mara mine is majority-owned by Canadian multinational Barrick Gold Corporation, one of the world’s largest gold mining companies. Gold from the mine is refined by MMTC-PAMP, a Swiss-Indian refiner which began refining gold from North Mara in 2013 and was first accredited by the LBMA in 2014… [see responses from MMTC-PAMP regarding the case here]
The LBMA denies liability, saying the claims being brought in respect of the fatalities are fundamentally misaligned with its duties and responsibilities. Barrick Gold also denies the allegations regarding North Mara mine…
Five weeks before a scheduled hearing, the LBMA confirmed it was abandoning its jurisdiction challenge, and it was agreed the claims would proceed before the High Court in London…