The role
Nelum is seeking an experienced Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel with specific expertise in mining law, commodities law, international trade and taxation.
This is one of the most strategically important appointments at Nelum. The business sits at the intersection of technology, mining, commodities, international trade, compliance and financial infrastructure, and it is designed to operate across several jurisdictions at once.
We therefore need a lawyer who understands the legal realities of physical commodities — not simply a general commercial lawyer.
Key responsibilities
Mining and natural resources law
A strong understanding of:
- Mining licences, permits, mineral titles and ownership.
- Artisanal and small-scale mining, and mining cooperatives.
- Mineral trading and mineral export requirements.
- Gold and precious-metal regulation.
- Responsible sourcing.
- Environmental and social obligations.
- Mining-sector compliance, and government and regulatory relationships.
Nigerian mining law and regulation matters first, because Nigeria is our first corridor, and experience of Nigeria's regulatory framework and agencies is highly desirable. It is not sufficient on its own. Producer states across Africa have moved rapidly toward state marketing bodies, local-refining mandates and export restrictions, and assessing whether a corridor can be operated lawfully is legal work before it is commercial work.
Commodities law
Experience with, or familiarity with:
- Commodity purchase and sale agreements, gold purchase agreements and doré transactions.
- Refinery, offtake and supply agreements.
- Commodity brokerage and agency arrangements.
- Custody arrangements and chain-of-custody requirements.
- Assay and settlement provisions, including splitting limits and umpire laboratories.
- Title and ownership representations.
- Pricing clauses referenced to a published benchmark rather than to a figure a party asserts.
- International commodity transactions and Incoterms, including FOB and CIF.
- International dispute-resolution provisions.
- Commodity fraud and title risk.
International trade
- Import and export law, customs requirements and export documentation.
- Cross-border commodity movements and international trade contracts.
- Sanctions compliance, including regimes that follow metal into third countries.
- AML, KYC/KYB and beneficial ownership.
- Trade documentation, international payments and foreign counterparties.
Tax law
The legal aspects of:
- Corporate taxation, VAT and withholding tax in the jurisdictions we operate in.
- Mining-sector, mineral and commodity taxation.
- Export taxation and duties.
- Cross-border taxation, transfer pricing and double taxation.
- UK, UAE, Nigerian and wider international tax considerations.
- The tax structuring of international commodity transactions.
The CLO will work closely with the CFO and external tax specialists rather than acting as Nelum's tax adviser.
Corporate and technology law
- Shareholder agreements, investment agreements and SAFE or convertible instruments.
- Corporate governance and board documentation.
- Corporate structuring across jurisdictions, and the incorporation and licensing work behind it.
- Commercial contracts, SaaS agreements and the platform's Terms of Service.
- Privacy policies and data-processing agreements under GDPR and other applicable regimes.
- Intellectual property, technology licensing and strategic partnerships.
- Employment and supplier agreements.
Regulatory and compliance
- Develop Nelum's regulatory framework across AML, KYC/KYB, responsible sourcing, sanctions, data protection, commodity compliance, mining regulation and international trade.
- Identify when specialist external counsel is required in Nigeria, the UK, the UAE or another jurisdiction, and instruct and manage it.
Ideal candidate
We are particularly interested in:
- Senior commercial lawyers.
- Mining and natural-resources lawyers.
- Energy and commodities lawyers.
- International trade lawyers.
- Financial-services and regulatory lawyers with commodities experience.
- Lawyers who have worked with gold or precious metals, or advised commodity trading companies.
Qualifications
- A Nigerian-qualified lawyer is highly desirable.
- UK, UAE, international or dual-qualified candidates will also be considered; dual-qualified candidates are of particular interest given where the business operates.
Engagement
Fractional, moving to permanent. We are open to starting with a fractional arrangement and moving to a permanent executive role as Nelum scales.
About Nelum
Nelum is a technology company building compliance-as-a-service and market-access infrastructure for artisanal and small-scale mining and the wider commodities sector. The platform helps licensed miners, mining cooperatives and commodity businesses become verified, compliant and buyer-ready, and improves transparency, traceability and responsible sourcing across international supply chains.
The platform is built to operate internationally. It is commodity-agnostic and corridor-based: a new producing country or a new material is a configuration of the same system rather than a separate build. The commodity scope is precious metals; tin, tantalum and tungsten; battery and technical metals; precious stones; and oil.
Our first corridor is Nigeria to Dubai, and our first material is gold — chosen because it is the hardest provenance environment in commodities. The company is structured for that reach from the outset: a UK parent, an intended operating entity in Dubai, engineering resourced internationally, and field operations beginning in Nigeria. The public platform runs in English, Arabic and Chinese.