BGR Certified Trading Chains

The German Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) developed the Certified Trading Chains (CTC) approach and has implemented it at the pilot scale with its national partners in Rwanda (2009-2011) and, in adapted form, in the DRC (2009-2016). The CTC was adopted by the Congolese government as part of a technical partnership with BGR.

The CTC scheme is designed to certify responsible mining and trade of minerals, with a focus on tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold. The scheme is geared to addressing the specific challenges that are associated with artisanal mining, and emphasises feasibility and impact in an artisanal context. The CTC standard places emphasis on the processes towards the achievement of performance targets.

In 2019, the CTC manual was updated for the DRC and retropectively applied to the copper-cobalt sector, with no certifications to date.