Authority in writing, checkable by the person across the table

A doré offer commonly reaches a refining desk through four or five people, each describing themselves as the mandated agent for the seller. Each is forwarding the last one's email. None can produce the company they say they act for.

Because that is the norm, a genuine agent is treated exactly like the four who are not. The cost of the impostors is paid by the people doing the job properly.

The authority letter is a PDF. It can be edited, it can be months out of date, it says nothing about what happens if the principal changes their mind, and the counterparty has no way to check any of that without calling a company they do not yet know.

An introducer is trusted to introduce, and then commits their principal to a price. Nobody wrote down which of those two things was permitted, so the argument happens after the offer is made rather than before.

You arrive at a meeting, or a mine site, representing a company the other party has never dealt with. Your evidence is a business card and an email domain.

Your public member page is served by Nelum, not by you, and shows who you are and whether your identity check passed — readable on a phone by the person in front of you.