The World Gold Council (WGC) is looking to come up with a unified platform on responsible mining standards, consolidating all approaches and standardising them, said WGC chief financial officer Terry Heyman.

The standards include how mines should operate, address environmental concerns, and take care of human and labour rights, he told businessline. The WGC is looking at opportunities to link physical and digital gold via shared infrastructure to offer gold as a service. 

“We do a lot of work around responsible mining. We have what’s called the responsible gold mining principles that set out what any large-scale miner of gold should do when it comes to mining gold, how they should operate, how they should practice environmental considerations, human rights, labour rights,” he told businessline in an online interview. 

Strong codes of practice

Any mining company anywhere in the world at any stage of development can follow this consolidated mining standard. The WGC is putting in a lot of effort as it is important to its members, who are the world’s largest gold mining companies. 

“It’s important to the mining industry more broadly to give confidence to everybody that their products have been mined responsibly,” said Heyman, adding that there are organisations that support responsible purchasing.

“There are absolutely strong codes of practice in place. It’s an area that demands continual scrutiny and continued raising of the bar, he said.  

Linking physical and digital gold will create more opportunities in India, he said, adding that the WGC is looking at sharing infrastructure in this regard.   

Offering a package

“Companies are looking to create new digital products, and they have got lots of ideas around creating a product, creating the digital interface, connecting with customers, who their target customers are, and what those customers are looking for. Where they struggle is linking that back to gold sat in a vault, and they understand that there’s the need for this product to be connected physically in a vault somewhere,” said Heyman. 

It is here that the WGC can help, as it knows a lot of the providers in the infrastructure aspect in companies that do vaulting of gold or assess gold to make sure the assurance services, or the know your customer and responsible sourcing. 

“We can bring that all together and essentially offer that as a package that will be a service that can be offered to any product provider that they can then link their token or their collateralisation product or their payment product back into this pool of gold,” he said.

This is where the WGC is talking about shared infrastructure and looking at innovations, where some product providers can create linkages. 

Investment demand growing

“We want to provide the shared infrastructure, recognising that there are a lot of businesses out there, a lot of really excited entrepreneurs looking to create new products, looking to take advantage,” said the WGC official.

Heyman said demand for gold as an investment product is growing, particularly in the Indian context. In 2025, investment demand increased in value and volume. 

“There is a significant opportunity for further growth in investment products, of which digital gold will be one form,” he said. 

The WGC sees an opportunity for digital gold, and it could develop further. The council can support new product providers by creating a bridge between the digital and the physical.  

Linked to physical asset

“We want to make sure that all digital gold products ultimately can be linked back to physical gold sitting in a vault somewhere. We think the opportunity is very exciting in terms of innovations that are happening in the digital space,” said Heyman.

Gold should be fully backed for every token or product, be it a collateralisation product or a lending product. “…but we haven’t yet seen the real connection back to real-world assets. Gold is the ultimate store of value and well understood,” he said. 

The WGC has to find a way to connect physical to the digital in a way that people can have confidence that that gold is there, that that gold has been assured, that it’s got independent verification that that gold is actually there.

In this regard, gold ETFs are a historical product that uses this idea of digitalised gold. However, it is not done through modern financial innovation. At the same time, India will continue to be a very strong jewellery market, he said.

Role in India

In India, gold continues to play an important role as a form of jewellery as well. The WGC outlook for India is positive on jewellery and investment side.  

Though the council does not provide forecasts on price,  it sees individuals continuing to view the case for holding gold as part of a balanced portfolio.  The WGC “strongly believes” that there will be increased demand for gold. 

Stating that the body of gold miners was supporting trust in the entire gold value chain, Heyman said the organisation is committed to making sure that consumers can trust their gold, and they have confidence that any digital product is underpinned by physical gold.

Stating that the state of digitalisation in India is exciting, the WGC CFO said the country believes in gold and understands the role that the precious metal plays in helping people manage financial security over generations. 

Published on May 5, 2026