David Tait

THE appointment as CEO of the World Gold Council (WGC) in 2018 seemed an unusual one for David Tait after he spent decades as a senior executive in the banking industry. But he had a vision: to improve gold’s standing among financial institutions so that it would become more investable. His strategy to digitise gold is starting to take shape: in 2025 the WGC launched a Wholesale Digital Gold ecosystem, underpinned by the development of a new digital form of gold.

The WGC describes this as the third foundational pillar to sit alongside the existing settlement through allocated and unallocated gold. As it is, investment in gold is booming. The price has more than doubled over the past four years, and rose 68% last year alone. Total demand for the metal is estimated to exceed 5,200t in 2025 — a new record — owing to central banks which have boosted their gold holdings to about 22% of total reserves, up from around 12% five years ago.

But gold’s rise has a dark side, resulting in a surge in artisanal small-scale mining (ASM), some of it illegal. A significant part of the estimated $100bn produced annually via ASM is said to be funding terrorist and criminal organisations such as M32 in the DRC, al-Qaeda and Islamic State as well as drug cartels in Colombia, Venezuela and Peru. Tait has now prioritised the formalisation of ASM by, among other strategies, working with central banks to buy ASM gold at market-related prices.