United States Legal Gold and Mining Partnership Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The United States Legal Gold and Mining Partnership Act responds to illicit gold mining, trafficking, and commercialization in the Western Hemisphere. It requires the State Department to coordinate a multi-year strategy, brief Congress on illicit gold mining in Venezuela with intelligence input, lead an investigation of the illicit Venezuelan gold trade with Treasury, DOJ, and allied governments, use multilateral institutions and development banks to support responsible mining, build public-private responsible gold value chains with Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and other democratic governments, clarify that the bill does not authorize military force, and add transactions involving precious metals to the list of activities Treasury can consider when identifying primary money laundering concerns.
Who Benefits and How
Responsible gold miners benefit if the strategy and partnerships steer buyers toward legal, traceable gold value chains. Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru benefit from U.S. coordination on responsible mining and anti-trafficking systems. Development banks benefit from a clearer U.S. push to support legal mining and value-chain transparency. Treasury financial crimes offices benefit from explicit authority to treat precious-metals transactions as money-laundering concern indicators. Communities harmed by illicit mining benefit if the strategy reduces criminal financing, environmental damage, and labor exploitation.
Who Bears the Burden and How
State Department officials must develop the strategy, coordinate regional governments, brief Congress, and manage public-private partnerships. Treasury Department sanctions and financial crimes staff must support investigations and use the expanded money-laundering tool. DOJ investigators must coordinate on illicit gold trade investigations. Venezuelan illicit gold traffickers face investigation, enforcement, and financial restrictions. Precious metals dealers face greater anti-money-laundering scrutiny when transactions raise primary money-laundering concerns.
Key Provisions
- Requires a multi-year Legal Gold and Mining Partnership strategy.
- Requires a classified briefing on illicit gold mining in Venezuela.
- Requires investigation of the illicit Venezuelan gold trade with Treasury, DOJ, and partner governments.
- Directs U.S. representatives to leverage multilateral institutions and development banks.
- Creates a public-private partnership to build responsible gold value chains.
- Provides a rule of construction that does not authorize military force.
- Adds precious-metals transactions to money-laundering concern authorities.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates a multi-year Legal Gold and Mining Partnership strategy to counter illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, investigate Venezuelan illicit gold, build responsible gold value chains, coordinate with Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, multilateral institutions, and development banks, and add precious-metals transactions to money-laundering concern tools.
Key Policy Areas
Foreign Affairs, Mining, Anti-Money Laundering, Latin America
Primary Purpose
Creates a multi-year Legal Gold and Mining Partnership strategy to counter illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, investigate Venezuelan illicit gold, build responsible gold value chains, coordinate with Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, multilateral institutions, and development banks, and add precious-metals transactions to money-laundering concern tools.
Policy Domains
Bill provisions
Identified Gains
- Responsible gold miners
- Colombia government agencies
- Ecuador government agencies
- Peru government agencies
- Development banks
- Communities harmed by illicit mining
Identified Costs
- State Department officials
- Treasury Department sanctions staff
- DOJ investigators
- Venezuelan illicit gold traffickers
- Precious metals dealers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
ReportedPlaced on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. …
Committee on Foreign Relations. Reported by Senator Risch with an …
Reported by Mr. Risch, with an amendment
Committee on Foreign Relations. Ordered to be reported with an …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
Introduced in Senate
Mr. Cornyn (for himself, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Cruz, and Ms. …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Colombia government agencies, Ecuador government agencies, Peru government agencies
Positive-direction: Colombia government agencies, Ecuador government agencies, Peru government agencies
Negative-direction: State Department officials, Treasury Department sanctions staff
Precious metals dealers, Responsible gold miners, Venezuelan illicit gold traffickers
Positive-direction: Responsible gold miners
Negative-direction: Precious metals dealers, Venezuelan illicit gold traffickers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "treasury"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of State
- "attorney_general"
- → Attorney General
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology