II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 799
To establish and implement a multi-year Legal Gold and Mining Partnership
Strategy to reduce the negative environmental and social impacts of
illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. C
ORNYN(for himself and Mr. KAINE) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To establish and implement a multi-year Legal Gold and
Mining Partnership Strategy to reduce the negative envi-
ronmental and social impacts of illicit gold mining in
the Western Hemisphere, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘United States Legal 4
Gold and Mining Partnership Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress makes the following findings: 7
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(1) The illicit mining, trafficking, and commer-1
cialization of gold in the Western Hemisphere— 2
(A) negatively affects the region’s economic 3
and social dynamics; 4
(B) strengthens transnational criminal or-5
ganizations and other international illicit actors; 6
and 7
(C) has a deleterious impact on the envi-8
ronment, indigenous peoples, and food security. 9
(2) A lack of economic opportunities and the 10
weak rule of law promote illicit activities, such as il-11
licit gold mining, which increases the vulnerability of 12
individuals in mining areas, including indigenous 13
communities, who have been subjected to trafficking 14
in persons, other human rights abuses, and popu-15
lation displacement in relation to mining activity, 16
particularly in the artisanal and small-scale mining 17
sector. 18
(3) Illicit gold mining in Latin America often 19
involves and benefits transnational criminal organi-20
zations, drug trafficking organizations, terrorist 21
groups, and other illegal armed groups that extort 22
miners and enter into illicit partnerships with them 23
in order to gain revenue from the illicit activity. 24
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(4) Illicit gold supply chains are international in 1
nature and frequently involve— 2
(A) the smuggling of gold and supplies, 3
such as mercury; 4
(B) trade-based money laundering; and 5
(C) other cross-border flows of illicit as-6
sets. 7
(5) In Latin America, mineral traders and ex-8
porters, local processors, and shell companies linked 9
to transnational criminal networks and illegally 10
armed groups all play a key role in the trafficking, 11
laundering, and commercialization of illicit gold from 12
the region. 13
(6) According to a report on illegally mined 14
Gold in Latin America by the Global Initiative 15
Against Transnational Organized Crime— 16
(A) more than 70 percent of the gold 17
mined in several Latin American countries, 18
such as Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, is mined 19
through illicit means; and 20
(B) about 80 percent of the gold mined in 21
Venezuela is mined through illicit means and a 22
large percentage of such gold is sold— 23
(i) to Mibiturven, a joint venture op-24
erated by the Maduro regime composed of 25
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Minerven, a gold processor that has been 1
designated by the Office of Foreign Assets 2
Control of the Department of the Treas-3
ury, pursuant to Executive Order 13850 4
(relating to blocking property of additional 5
persons contributing to the situation in 6
Venezuela), and Marilyns Proje Yatirim, 7
S.A., a Turkish company; or 8
(ii) through other trafficking and 9
commercialization networks from which the 10
Maduro regime benefits financially. 11
(7) Illegal armed groups and foreign terrorist 12
organizations, such as the Eje´rcito de Liberacio´n 13
Nacional (National Liberation Army—ELN), work 14
with transnational criminal organizations in Ven-15
ezuela that participate in the illicit mining, traf-16
ficking, and commercialization of gold. 17
(8) Transnational criminal organizations based 18
in Venezuela, such as El Tren de Aragua, have ex-19
panded their role in the illicit mining, trafficking, 20
and commercialization of gold to increase their 21
criminal profits. 22
(9) Nicaragua’s gold exports during 2021 were 23
valued at an estimated $989,000,000 in value, of 24
which— 25
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(A) gold valued at an estimated 1
$898,000,000 was shipped to the United 2
States; 3
(B) gold valued at an estimated 4
$48,700,000 was shipped to Switzerland; 5
(C) gold valued at an estimated 6
$39,000,000 was shipped to the United Arab 7
Emirates; and 8
(D) gold valued at an estimated 9
$3,620,000 was shipped to Austria. 10
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 11
In this Act: 12
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -13
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-14
mittees’’ means— 15
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 16
the Senate; 17
(B) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 18
and Urban Affairs of the Senate; 19
(C) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 20
the House of Representatives; and 21
(D) the Committee on Financial Services 22
of the House of Representatives . 23
(2) A
RTISANAL AND SMALL -SCALE MINING; 24
ASM.—The terms ‘‘artisanal and small-scale mining’’ 25
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and ‘‘ASM’’ refer to a form of mining common in 1
the developing world that— 2
(A) typically employs rudimentary, simple, 3
and low-cost extractive technologies and manual 4
labor-intensive techniques; 5
(B) is frequently subject to limited regula-6
tion; and 7
(C) often features harsh and dangerous 8
working conditions. 9
(3) I
LLICIT ACTORS.—The term ‘‘illicit actors’’ 10
includes— 11
(A) any person included on any list of— 12
(i) United States-designated foreign 13
terrorist organizations; 14
(ii) specially designated global terror-15
ists (as defined in section 594.310 of title 16
31, Code of Federal Regulations); 17
(iii) significant foreign narcotics traf-18
fickers (as defined in section 808 of the 19
Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation 20
Act (21 U.S.C. 1907); or 21
(iv) blocked persons, as maintained by 22
the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the 23
Department of the Treasury; and 24
(B) drug trafficking organizations. 25
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(4) KEY STAKEHOLDERS .—The term ‘‘key 1
stakeholders’’ means private sector organizations, in-2
dustry representatives, and civil society groups that 3
represent communities in areas affected by illicit 4
mining and trafficking of gold, including indigenous 5
groups, that are committed to the implementation of 6
the Legal Gold and Mining Partnership Strategy. 7
(5) L
EGAL GOLD AND MINING PARTNERSHIP 8
STRATEGY; STRATEGY.—The terms ‘‘Legal Gold and 9
Mining Partnership Strategy’’ and ‘‘Strategy’’ mean 10
the strategy developed pursuant to section 4. 11
(6) R
ELEVANT FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS AND 12
AGENCIES.—The term ‘‘relevant Federal depart-13
ments and agencies’’ means— 14
(A) the Department of State; 15
(B) the Department of the Treasury; 16
(C) the Department of Homeland Security, 17
including U.S. Customs and Border Protection 18
and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforce-19
ment; 20
(D) the Department of Justice, including 21
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the 22
Drug Enforcement Administration; 23
(E) the Department of the Interior; 24
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(F) the United States Agency for Inter-1
national Development; and 2
(G) other Federal agencies designated by 3
the President. 4
SEC. 4. LEGAL GOLD AND MINING PARTNERSHIP STRAT-5
EGY. 6
(a) S
TRATEGYREQUIRED.—The Secretary of State, 7
in coordination with the heads of relevant Federal depart-8
ments and agencies, shall develop a comprehensive, multi- 9
year strategy, which shall be known as the Legal Gold and 10
Mining Partnership Strategy, to combat illicit gold mining 11
in the Western Hemisphere. 12
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The Strategy shall include policies, 13
programs, and initiatives— 14
(1) to interrupt the linkages between ASM and 15
illicit actors that profit from ASM in the Western 16
Hemisphere; 17
(2) to deter ASM in environmentally protected 18
areas, such as national parks and conservation 19
zones, to prevent mining-related contamination of 20
critical natural resources, such as water resources, 21
soil, tropical forests, and other flora and fauna, and 22
aerosol contamination linked to detrimental health 23
impacts; 24
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(3) to counter the financing and enrichment of 1
actors involved in the illicit mining, trafficking, and 2
commercialization of gold, and the abetting of their 3
activities by— 4
(A) promoting the exercise of due diligence 5
and the use of responsible sourcing methods in 6
the purchase and trade of ASM; 7
(B) preventing and prohibiting foreign per-8
sons who control commodity trading chains 9
linked to illicit actors from enjoying the benefits 10
of access to the territory, markets or financial 11
system of the United States, and halting any 12
such ongoing activity by such foreign persons; 13
(C) combating related impunity afforded to 14
illicit actors by addressing corruption in govern-15
ment institutions; and 16
(D) supporting the capacity of financial in-17
telligence units, customs agencies, and other 18
government institutions focused on anti-money 19
laundering initiatives and combating the financ-20
ing of criminal activities and terrorism to exer-21
cise oversight consistent with the threats posed 22
by illicit gold mining; 23
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(4) to build the capacity of foreign civilian law 1
enforcement institutions in the Western Hemisphere 2
to effectively counter— 3
(A) linkages between illicit gold mining, il-4
licit actors, money laundering, and other finan-5
cial crimes, including trade-based money laun-6
dering; 7
(B) linkages between illicit gold mining, il-8
licit actors, trafficking in persons, and forced or 9
coerced labor, including sex work and child 10
labor; 11
(C) the cross-border trafficking of illicit 12
gold, and the mercury, cyanide, explosives, and 13
other hazardous materials used in illicit gold 14
mining; and 15
(D) surveillance and investigation of illicit 16
and related activities that are related to or are 17
indicators of illicit gold mining activities; 18
(5) to ensure the successful implementation of 19
the existing Memoranda of Understanding signed 20
with the Governments of Peru and of Colombia in 21
2017 and 2018, respectively, to expand bilateral co-22
operation to combat illicit gold mining; 23
(6) to work with governments in the Western 24
Hemisphere, bolster the effectiveness of anti-money 25
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laundering efforts to combat the financing of illicit 1
actors in Latin America and the Caribbean and 2
counter the laundering of proceeds related to illicit 3
gold mining by— 4
(A) fostering international and regional co-5
operation and facilitating intelligence sharing, 6
as appropriate, to identify and disrupt financial 7
flows related to the illicit gold mining, traf-8
ficking, and commercialization of gold and 9
other minerals and illicit metals; and 10
(B) supporting the formulation of strate-11
gies to ensure the compliance of reporting insti-12
tutions involved in the mining sector and to 13
promote transparency in mining-sector trans-14
actions; 15
(7) to support foreign government efforts— 16
(A) to facilitate licensing and formalization 17
processes for ASM miners; 18
(B) to develop mechanisms to support reg-19
ulated cultural artisanal mining and artisanal 20
mining as a job growth area; and 21
(C) to implement existing environmental 22
standards; 23
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(8) to engage the mining industry to encourage 1
the building of technical expertise in best practices 2
and access to new technologies; 3
(9) to support the establishment of gold com-4
modity supply chain due diligence, responsible 5
sourcing, tracing and tracking capacities, and stand-6
ards-compliant commodity certification systems in 7
countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, in-8
cluding efforts recommended in the OECD Due Dili-9
gence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of 10
Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High Risk 11
Areas, Third Edition (2016); 12
(10) to engage with civil society to reduce the 13
negative environmental impacts of ASM, particu-14
larly— 15
(A) the use of mercury in preliminary re-16
fining; 17
(B) the destruction of tropical forests; 18
(C) the construction of illegal and unregu-19
lated dams and the resulting valley floods; 20
(D) the pollution of water resources and 21
soil; and 22
(E) the release of dust, which can contain 23
toxic chemicals and heavy metals that can cause 24
severe health problems; 25
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(11) to aid and encourage ASM miners— 1
(A) to formalize their business activities, 2
including through skills training, technical and 3
business assistance, and access to financing, 4
loans, and credit; 5
(B) to utilize mercury-free gold refining 6
technologies and mining methods that minimize 7
deforestation, air pollution, and water and soil 8
contamination; 9
(C) to reduce the costs associated with for-10
malization and compliance with mining regula-11
tions; and 12
(D) to fully break away from the influence 13
of illicit actors who leverage the control of terri-14
tory and use violence to extort miners and push 15
them into illicit arrangements; 16
(12) to interrupt the illicit gold trade in Nica-17
ragua, including through the use of United States 18
punitive measures against the government led by 19
President Daniel Ortega and Vice-President Rosario 20
Murillo and their collaborators pursuant to Execu-21
tive Order 14088 (relating to taking additional steps 22
to address the national emergency with respect to 23
the situation in Nicaragua), which was issued on Oc-24
tober 24, 2022; 25
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(13) to assist local journalists with investiga-1
tions of illicit mining, trafficking, and commer-2
cialization of gold and its supplies in the Western 3
Hemisphere; and 4
(14) to promote responsible sourcing and due 5
diligence at all levels of gold supply chains. 6
(c) A
SSESSMENT OF CHALLENGES.—The Strategy 7
shall include an assessment of the challenges posed by, 8
and policy recommendations to address— 9
(1) linkages between ASM sector production 10
and trade, particularly relating to gold, to the activi-11
ties of illicit actors, including linkages that help to 12
finance or enrich such illicit actors or abet their ac-13
tivities; 14
(2) linkages between illicit or grey market 15
trade, and markets in gold and other metals or min-16
erals and legal trade and commerce in such commod-17
ities, notably with respect to activities that abet the 18
entry of such commodities into legal commerce, in-19
cluding— 20
(A) illicit cross-border trafficking, includ-21
ing with respect to goods, persons and illegal 22
narcotics; 23
(B) money-laundering; 24
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(C) the financing of illicit actors or their 1
activities; and 2
(D) the extralegal entry into the United 3
States of— 4
(i) metals or minerals, whether of 5
legal foreign origin or not; and 6
(ii) the proceeds of such metals or 7
minerals; 8
(3) linkages between the illicit mining, traf-9
ficking, and commercialization of gold, diamonds, 10
and precious metals and stones, and the financial 11
and political activities of the regime of Nicola´s 12
Maduro of Venezuela; 13
(4) factors that— 14
(A) produce linkages between ASM miners 15
and illicit actors, prompting some ASM miners 16
to utilize mining practices that are environ-17
mentally damaging and unsustainable, notably 18
mining or related ore processing practices 19
that— 20
(i) involve the use of elemental mer-21
cury; or 22
(ii) result in labor, health, environ-23
mental, and safety code infractions and 24
workplace hazards; and 25
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(B) lead some ASM miners to operate in 1
the extralegal or poorly regulated informal sec-2
tor, and often prevent such miners from im-3
proving the socioeconomic status of themselves 4
and their families and communities, or hinder 5
their ability to formalize their operations, en-6
hance their technical and business capacities, 7
and access finance of fair market prices for 8
their output; 9
(5) mining-related trafficking in persons and 10
forced or coerced labor, including sex work and child 11
labor; and 12
(6) the use of elemental mercury and cyanide in 13
ASM operations, including the technical aims and 14
scope of such usage and its impact on human health 15
and the environment, including flora, fauna, water 16
resources, soil, and air quality. 17
(d) F
OREIGNASSISTANCE.—The Strategy shall de-18
scribe— 19
(1) existing foreign assistance programs that 20
address elements of the Strategy; and 21
(2) additional foreign assistance resources need-22
ed to fully implement the Strategy. 23
(e) S
UBMISSION.—Not later than 180 days after the 24
date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall sub-25
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mit the Strategy to the appropriate congressional commit-1
tees. 2
(f) S
EMIANNUALBRIEFINGS.—Not later than 180 3
days after submission of the Strategy, and semiannually 4
thereafter for the following 3 years, the Secretary of State, 5
or the Secretary’s designee, shall provide a briefing to the 6
appropriate congressional committees regarding the imple-7
mentation of the strategy, including efforts to leverage 8
international support and develop a public-private partner-9
ship to build responsible gold value chains with other gov-10
ernments. 11
SEC. 5. CLASSIFIED BRIEFING ON ILLICIT GOLD MINING IN 12
VENEZUELA. 13
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact-14
ment of this Act, the Secretary of State, or the Secretary’s 15
designee, in coordination with the Director of National In-16
telligence, shall provide a classified briefing to the appro-17
priate congressional committees, the Select Committee on 18
Intelligence of the Senate, and the Permanent Select Com-19
mittee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives 20
that describes— 21
(1) the activities related to illicit gold mining, 22
including the illicit mining, trafficking, and commer-23
cialization of gold, inside Venezuelan territory car-24
ried out by illicit actors, including defectors from the 25
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Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 1
and members of the National Liberation Army 2
(ELN); and 3
(2) Venezuela’s illicit gold trade with foreign 4
governments, including the Government of the Re-5
public of Turkey and the Government of the Islamic 6
Republic of Iran. 7
SEC. 6. INVESTIGATION OF THE ILLICIT GOLD TRADE IN 8
VENEZUELA. 9
The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Sec-10
retary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and allied 11
and partner governments in the Western Hemisphere, 12
shall— 13
(1) lead a coordinated international effort to 14
carry out financial investigations to identify and 15
track assets taken from the people and institutions 16
in Venezuela that are linked to money laundering 17
and illicit activities, including mining-related activi-18
ties, by sharing financial investigations intelligence, 19
as appropriate and as permitted by law; and 20
(2) provide technical assistance to help eligible 21
governments in Latin America establish legislative 22
and regulatory frameworks capable of imposing and 23
effectively implementing targeted sanctions on— 24
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(A) officials of the Maduro regime who are 1
directly engaged in the illicit mining, traf-2
ficking, and commercialization of gold; and 3
(B) foreign persons engaged in the laun-4
dering of illicit gold assets linked to designated 5
terrorist and drug trafficking organizations. 6
SEC. 7. LEVERAGING INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT. 7
In implementing the Strategy pursuant to section 4, 8
the President should direct United States representatives 9
accredited to relevant multilateral institutions and devel-10
opment banks and United States ambassadors in the 11
Western Hemisphere to use the influence of the United 12
States to foster international cooperation to achieve the 13
objectives of this Act, including— 14
(1) marshaling resources and political support; 15
and 16
(2) encouraging the development of policies and 17
consultation with key stakeholders to accomplish 18
such objectives and provisions. 19
SEC. 8. PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP TO BUILD RESPON-20
SIBLE GOLD VALUE CHAINS. 21
(a) B
ESTPRACTICES.—The Secretary of State (re-22
ferred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’), in coordina-23
tion with the Governments of Colombia, of Ecuador, and 24
of Peru, and with other democratically-elected govern-25
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ments in the region, shall consult with the Government 1
of Switzerland regarding best practices developed through 2
the Swiss Better Gold Initiative (a public-private partner-3
ship that aims to improve transparency and traceability 4
in the international gold trade). 5
(b) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall coordinate 6
with the Governments of Colombia, of Ecuador, of Peru, 7
and of other democratically-elected governments in the re-8
gion determined by the Secretary to establish a public-pri-9
vate partnership to advance the best practices identified 10
pursuant to subsection (a), including supporting program-11
ming in participating countries that will— 12
(1) support the ASM gold mining sector’s for-13
malization and compliance with the existing environ-14
mental and labor standards in participating coun-15
tries; 16
(2) increase awareness of access to financing 17
for ASM gold miners who are taking significant 18
steps to formalize their operations and comply with 19
the existing labor and environmental standards in 20
participating countries; 21
(3) enhance the traceability and support the es-22
tablishment of a certification process for ASM gold; 23
(4) support a public relations campaign to pro-24
mote responsibly-sourced gold; 25
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(5) include representatives of local civil society 1
to work towards soliciting the free and informed 2
consent of those living on lands with mining poten-3
tial; 4
(6) facilitate contact between vendors of respon-5
sibly-sourced gold and United States companies; and 6
(7) promote policies and practices in partici-7
pating countries that are conducive to the formaliza-8
tion of ASM gold mining and promoting adherence 9
of ASM to internationally-recognized best practices 10
and standards. 11
(c) M
EETING.—The Secretary or the Administrator 12
of the United States Agency for International Develop-13
ment, without delegation and in coordination with the gov-14
ernments of participating countries, should— 15
(1) host a meeting with senior representatives 16
of the private sector and international governmental 17
and nongovernmental partners; and 18
(2) make commitments to improve due diligence 19
and increase the responsible sourcing of gold. 20
SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 21
Out of funds appropriated to the Department of 22
State for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, there is authorized 23
to be appropriated to the Department of State not more 24
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than $10,000,000 to implement the Legal Gold and Min-1
ing Partnership Strategy developed pursuant to section 4. 2
Æ
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