CASE STUDIES

Assuring Resolute’s Performance Against the RGMPs and CFGS

Kumi was commissioned by Resolute, a gold mining company with assets in West Africa, to undertake an assurance engagement against the World Gold Council’s (WGC’s) Responsible Gold Mining Principles (RGMPs) and Conflict-Free Gold Standard (CFGS). Kumi uses an assurance framework methodology that adheres to ISAE 3000 assurance standards for non-financial information.

As a WGC member, Resolute is required to demonstrate annual conformance with the 10 principles and 51 subprinciples of the RGMPs and the requirements outlined by the CFGS. Companies have 3 years to become compliant with the requirements of the RGMPs. To do this, Resolute required the assistance of a consultancy with expertise in the gold mining sector and external assurance. Kumi evaluated the company’s self-assessment report against its performance via a desk-based review in Year 2, followed by a combination of a desk-based review and on-site visit to the Mako mine in Senegal in Year 3.

Project-specific tasks included:

A detailed examination of the company’s performance, involving a meticulous review of Resolute’s self-assessment reports for the RGMPs and CFGS against policies, procedures and other written evidence that the company was asked to produce. Additionally, internal stakeholders across all assets and company HQ were interviewed to verify the validity of Resolute’s claims.
As per the RGMPs’ requirements, Kumi conducted an on-site assessment at Resolute’s Mako mine in Senegal to assess the day-to-day implementation of the RGMPs at the site level. This enabled a deeper insight that we were able to incorporate into our review and report.
After gathering evidence for each claim in the RGMPs and CFGS reports, Kumi conducted a thorough substantiation process to ensure that the language used in the self-assessment was accurate and appropriate.
As a result of the evaluation process, it was determined that Resolute was compliant with the WGC requirements for both the RGMPs and CFGS. Consequently, Kumi issued Resolute assurance certificates to certify its compliance.

In addition, we delivered a comprehensive management report to Resolute’s management, offering practical and actionable recommendations to enhance adherence to the WGC’s standards. This has underpinned Resolute’s roadmap to address and implement any outstanding actions towards its target of 100% alignment with the RGMPs and the CFGS.

Our work has been reported in the company’s 2022 Annual Report (page 12).