Building a refinery is a capital problem with a known solution. Getting its bars accepted without question by a global custodian is a governance problem with a much longer timeline.
What accreditation is really testing
Assay accuracy is the easy part. The hard part is documented provenance, ownership transparency and a compliance function that survives an unannounced audit.
The cost of the gap
Unrecognised output is sold at a discount, re-refined elsewhere and recorded as another country's export. The value added leaves with the bar.
