Research
The law behind every step a commodity takes between countries
Who acts, what they need, what is issued and the law behind each step — across 31 countries and 49 country pairs. Every statement says what it rests on, how that source was read, and what we could not confirm.
Checked 2026-09-29
Public law and official guidance, published as research. Not legal, tax or financial advice.
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Commodities
A commodity is live when its research is complete enough to read step by step, with every source. Research in progress is listed with the routes it will cover.
- Live
Gold
Doré and refined bars, from artisanal and industrial mines through refining and vaulting hubs to the markets that buy.
31 countries · 49 country pairs - In research
Precious stones
Diamonds and coloured gemstones, rough and cut, and the Kimberley Process that decides where rough diamonds may go.
Routes in research: 1
What the research holds
Countries
Country pairs
Procedure steps
Sources
Unverified statements
Documents not obtained
Where practice departs from law
Routes in research
Countries
Each country's regulators, laws, licences, taxes, controls and procedures.
- Australia
- Brazil
- Burkina Faso
- Canada
- China
- Colombia
- Congo - Kinshasa
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Hong Kong SAR China
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Mali
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Papua New Guinea
- Peru
- Russia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- Sudan
- Switzerland
- Tanzania
- Türkiye
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Uzbekistan
- Zimbabwe
Routes in research
Routes not yet published: being researched now, or with both countries researched and the route itself still being put together.
- Nigeria → United KingdomIn researchPrecious stonessince 2026-09-26
Every statement carries its evidence
Three labels travel with every fact: how strong the source is, how much of it was read, and how its text reached us. A fact read from OCR, or from a summary, says so. So does one we could not confirm.