Our compliance and transparency standards are the foundation on which the trust from our employees, customers, and other stakeholders is built. Earning and maintaining this trust is the basis for our success. It requires an unwavering commitment to integrity and good business practices.
We value long-term relationships over short-term profits and have always ensured that processes are transparent and auditable. Our approach to compliance has three aspects: prevent, detect, and respond. Our highest priority by far is prevention.
Our approach
At Argor-Heraeus, we believe in the power of strong and accountable governance to drive our company forward. Our governance framework, policies, and guidelines meet or surpass the requirements of the law.
Our corporate policies and procedures serve as clear guidelines for our employees. With a strong focus on transparency and responsibility, these policies ensure that we collaborate solely with partners who share our commitment to responsible business conduct.
It is essential for us to maintain a high standard of operation, which is why we hold certifications from prominent national and international organizations. Our supply chain management system undergoes rigorous internal and external audits conducted by expert professionals to ensure compliance with rules and standards.
Guiding principles
Our Guiding Principles are the cornerstone of our corporate culture. They serve as a general orientation and guide as to how we conduct our business. These principles define behaviors and mindsets that are essential for successful cooperation with our partners, customers, and within our company.
We expect all employees worldwide to bring our guiding principles to life and therefore work continuously to ensure their implementation and ongoing development.
We stand for honesty, transparency, and ethical conduct.
We concentrate on our
customers’ needs.
We want to continuously get better.
We own our tasks and follow through.
We communicate clearly and respect each other.
We foster different prespectives and diverse teams.
We care about people and our planet.
We lead through new ideas.
Company policies and rules
Our company policies and rules play a key role in facilitating the daily decision-making of all employees. We regularly update these documents and ensure that our employees receive necessary training on them.
Code of Conduct
- Respect for human right
- Environmental and product safety
- Ensuring fair competition
- Preventing and combating corruption, money laundering, and terrorist financing
- Compliance with national, international, and supranational regulations
- Avoidance of conflicts of interest
- Creating and maintaining safe and fair working conditions
- Data protection
- Prevention of discrimination
Corporate Climate Policy
- Commitment to climate change mitigation targets and action
- Regular assessment of climate resilience across the Heraeus Group
Grievance and Whistleblowing Policy
- Available channels for submitting grievances
- Anonymous reporting and whistleblower protection
- Processing of grievances
Human Rights Policy
- Prohibition of child labor and forced labor
- Non-discrimination
- Freedom of association and collective bargaining
- Workplace safety
- Human rights due diligence in the supply chain
Policy of Compliance and Ethics
- Compliance with applicable laws and ethical principles
- Prohibition of engaging in business that arises from or is associated with criminal or illegal activities
- Compliance with responsible sourcing and business practices such as RJC and LBMA
Precious Metals Resource Use and Circularity Policy
- Commitment to driving a circular economy for precious metals
- Responsible sourcing and operation of recycling facilities in compliance with applicable regulations
- Encouraging sustainable development of mining partners
QEHS Policy (quality, environment, health, and safety)
- Integration of quality, environment, health, and safety in all processes
- Continuous improvement of performance in QEHS areas
- Prevention of pollution and minimization of environmental impacts
- Protection of health and safety of all employees and stakeholders
- Involvement and responsibility of all employees in achieving QEHS objectives
Supply Chain Due Diligence Policy
- Due diligence process to identify, assess, and manage risks in the supply chain
- No tolerance regarding human rights violations, harmful contamination of the environment, corruption, or other illegal activities
- Additional principles and processes for sourcing of precious metals
Supplier Code of Conduct
- Requiring suppliers to comply with the principles laid down in the Supply Chain Due Diligence Policy
- Responsibility to apply the Code to sub-suppliers and allow compliance audits
All policies are publicly available on the Argor-Heraeus and/or Heraeus Group websites.
Accreditations and certifications
Accreditations and certifications are an external and impartial testimony of the quality of the work we carry out every day, and of our responsible business conduct. We are certified by the major schemes in the sector for work and product quality, processes, and specific topics such as management of the value chain, environment, and safety.
Among others, we:
- are a founding member of the Swiss Better Gold Association.
- support the Fairmined and Fairtrade initiatives, to continuously help the development of artisanal and small-scale mining. To reinforce our commitment toward the ASM sector, our Co-CEO Robin Kolvenbach joined the board of the Alliance for Responsible Mining, the organization behind the Fairmined initiative, in 2023.
- are a member of London Bullion Market Association. In 2024, our Co-CEO Robin Kolvenbach was appointed as a member of the Board of the Association, underscoring our commitment to transparency and responsibility.
- are a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council, with a seat in the standards committee.
- have held a Melter & Assayer license to guarantee the authenticity, purity, and origin of precious metals since 1952. The assayers report directly to the Swiss Central Office for Precious Metals Control to ensure their independence.
We hold accreditations and certifications from the following bodies and are active members of several industry associations:
- Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM)
- Fairmined
- Fairtrade
- International Platinum Group Metals Association (IPA)
- International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI)
- ISO (45001, 19001, 14001, 17025)
- London Bullion Market Association (LBMA)
- London Platinum and Palladium Market (LPPM)
- Precious Metals Control Office (PMCO)
- Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC)
- Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI)
- Swiss Association of Manufacturers and Traders in Precious Metals (ASFCMP)
- Watch and Jewellery Initiative 2030
Verification of business partners
We thoroughly investigate each and every potential partner before entering into a business relationship.
Our company prioritizes the rigorous protocols known as “know your…” (customer, customer’s customer, business partner etc.), which apply to all potential partners and customers. These protocols include a comprehensive evaluation of economic, environmental, and social criteria to ensure high standards of integrity and responsibility. Factors we evaluate include the absence of corruption, respect for human rights, no tolerance for child or forced labor, a commitment to the well-being of affected communities, and social and environmental practices.
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To uphold our stringent standards, we have numerous measures in place. These include:
- Extensive checks before entering a new business relationship
- Regular on-site mine assessments conducted by us or a third party, typically every three years (depending on risk rating)
- Incident-based ad-hoc mine assessments
- Screening all information for irregularities, for example regarding ownership, general plausibility, and origin of metals
- Determination and assessment of the origins of delivered precious metals
- Independent assurance reports for intermediate refineries or collectors as per OECD Guideline
- Screening for sanctions and adverse media publications to verify partners’ compliance with human rights laws
- Engaging with legislators, NGOs, industry associations, unions, communities, and local governments
If precious metals business partners do not meet our standards, we refuse to enter into a business relationship with them. We terminate existing relationships if violations are detected that cannot be resolved or corrected. These stringent controls and evaluations are applied universally across all our global offices and operations.
Our system for responsible precious metals sourcing is certified by all major responsible precious metals sourcing frameworks such as LBMA, RJC, RMI, and LPPM. In addition, we have developed our own policies and processes that go beyond these frameworks. We aim to encourage their widespread adoption throughout our supply chain and across the industry.
By collaborating closely with our supply chain partners, we strive to mitigate any potential negative effects, ensuring that the precious metals we receive for refining meet responsible business principles, and intend to contribute positively to the well-being of all involved.
By partnering with supranational bodies, governments, and sector associations, we actively contribute to finding solutions to the challenges we face. We participate in working groups, committees, associations, and task forces to enhance the integrity and transparency of our sector. Together, we work to define new guidelines, regulations, and best practices that will shape the future of our industry.
Argor-Heraeus takes suspected violations of human rights, criminal law, environmental law, other laws and regulations, and our even stricter internal guidelines very seriously. We therefore encourage whistle-blowers to report suspected violations and concerns via our external ombudsman or our compliance channel Heraeus SpeakUp. Heraeus SpeakUp offers the possibility to report a compliance violation via internet, app, or by phone in more than 60 local languages and allows anonymous communication between the whistleblower and the person handling the incident. These channels are available to everyone inside and outside of our organization. Heraeus strictly prohibits any retaliation against whistleblowers who report compliance violations in good faith, even if the report is later found to be unfounded.
More information under: www.heraeus/speakup
Grievances related to workers and affected communities in our value chain
In 2024, no new grievance cases were reported to us, while we continued to process two cases reported in 2023.
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In the first case, we were approached by the NGO Fastenaktion with regard to alleged negative impacts of activities at a Columbian mine. After a detailed exchange, Fastenaktion corrected their analysis and reported publicly in 2024. The major aspect of the grievance case was thereby withdrawn. We continue to maintain open dialogue to resolve the remaining aspects.
In the second case, representatives from communities in the Dominican Republic raised informal concerns about alleged negative impacts of a mine’s activities on nearby communities. After communication with involved NGOs, the mine, and affected communities and a thorough investigation of local developments, the allegation of the grievance could not be confirmed.
Projects and initiatives
Knowing the origin of the metals we source and confirming they are not associated with conflict is not only relevant for ourselves. Our customers as well as their customers also seek confirmation of the responsible nature of the precious metals they buy.
Argor-Heraeus has taken significant steps to ensure the traceability of gold from primary sources, providing customers with proof of origin. For all primary gold entering our gold refining site in Mendrisio, Switzerland, we conduct a thorough geoforensic analysis including X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning to measure the characteristic composition. This allows us to make an exact assignment to its origin.
To enable the retrieval of the origin data, we partnered with Alitheon in 2022, a US-based company that specializes in artificial intelligence to identify physical products. The optical software generates digital fingerprints of gold bars that make them identifiable and traceable even if their stamps or serial numbers are lost. This will allow buyers or investors to identify these bars by photo. It is also possible to provide further information such as their place of origin or carbon footprint.
In addition, we have entered a partnership with the Swiss start-up aXedras, a provider of distributed ledger technology (DLT) specialized in the gold supply chain. DLT enables to save and transfer data from business transactions decentrally and unchangeably. The aim of this collaboration is to create a digital documentation from mine origin to consumer product while guaranteeing data integrity. In the long term, this approach will help us to trace even secondary gold back to its mine of origin, which has been almost impossible until now.
In 2025, we will work on aggregating information from the different methods into one seamless customer platform, which will provide customers of traceable gold product lines with information about the production date and provenance of the gold that their bar is made of.
At the beginning of 2025, Argor-Heraeus introduced two traceable gold product lines under our own branding. The “Small Craft” gold product line only includes gold from ASM mines accredited by the leading ASM-focused programs. The “Origin Traced” gold product line only contains gold from large-scale mines selected on the basis of their best-in-class commitment to responsible conduct, working conditions, and environmental welfare.
More information can be found on our website.
