Audit frameworks at refinery level now overlap to the point of redundancy. That is progress. It also means the residual risk sits almost entirely in the segment between the pit and the first aggregator, where documentation is created rather than checked.
Where paper starts
A chain of custody can only be as good as its first record. If the first buyer writes a weight and an origin on a receipt without verification, every downstream audit is validating that receipt rather than the metal.
What credible looks like
Geolocated purchase records, assay at point of purchase, and a payment trail that reconciles to the tonnage. It is not complicated. It is simply expensive, and nobody has agreed who pays.
