S799-119

In Committee

United States Legal Gold and Mining Partnership Act

119th Congress Introduced Feb 27, 2025

Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.

Summary

What This Bill Does

The bill creates congressional findings establishing the scope of illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, documenting links between illegal gold extraction and transnational criminal organizations, drug traffickers, establishes key definitions for the Act including artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), illicit actors (designated terrorists, narcotics traffickers, OFAC-blocked persons), key stakeholders, and relevant Federal, and directs the Secretary of State to develop a comprehensive multi-year Legal Gold and Mining Partnership Strategy to combat illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, including disrupting criminal networks, promoting. It relies on compliance mandates, reporting requirements, trade restrictions, and definition changes. The main policy areas are Foreign Affairs, Energy, Criminal Justice, and Finance.

Who Benefits and How

Department of State could gain revenue opportunities, Artisanal and small-scale gold miners in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru could gain revenue opportunities, and U.S. companies sourcing responsibly mined gold could gain revenue opportunities.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Department of State would take on compliance duties, Transnational criminal organizations and drug traffickers in gold supply chains could face higher barriers, and Officials of the Maduro regime engaged in illicit gold commercialization could face higher costs.

Key Provisions

  • Creates congressional findings establishing the scope of illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, documenting links between illegal gold extraction and transnational criminal organizations, drug traffickers...
  • Establishes key definitions for the Act including artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), illicit actors (designated terrorists, narcotics traffickers, OFAC-blocked persons), key stakeholders, and relevant Federal...
  • Directs the Secretary of State to develop a comprehensive multi-year Legal Gold and Mining Partnership Strategy to combat illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, including disrupting criminal networks, promoting...
  • Requires the Secretary of State, coordinating with the Director of National Intelligence, to provide a classified briefing within 90 days to congressional committees on illicit gold mining activities in Venezuela...
  • Directs the Secretary of State to lead a coordinated international effort to investigate and track Venezuelan assets linked to money laundering and illicit gold mining, and to provide technical assistance to Latin...

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

The bill creates congressional findings establishing the scope of illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, documenting links between illegal gold extraction and transnational criminal organizations, drug traffickers, establishes key definitions for the Act including artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), illicit actors (designated terrorists, narcotics traffickers, OFAC-blocked persons), key stakeholders, and relevant Federal, and directs the Secretary of State to develop a comprehensive multi-year Legal Gold and Mining Partnership Strategy to combat illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, including disrupting criminal networks, promoting.

Key Policy Areas

Foreign Affairs, Energy, Criminal Justice, Finance

Primary Purpose

The bill creates congressional findings establishing the scope of illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, documenting links between illegal gold extraction and transnational criminal organizations, drug traffickers, establishes key definitions for the Act including artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), illicit actors (designated terrorists, narcotics traffickers, OFAC-blocked persons), key stakeholders, and relevant Federal, and directs the Secretary of State to develop a comprehensive multi-year Legal Gold and Mining Partnership Strategy to combat illicit gold mining in the Western Hemisphere, including disrupting criminal networks, promoting.

Policy Domains

Foreign Affairs Energy Criminal Justice Finance

United States Legal Gold and Mining Partnership Act

Identified Gains
  • Department of State
  • Artisanal and small-scale gold miners in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
  • U.S. companies sourcing responsibly mined gold
  • Artisanal and small-scale gold miners seeking formalization
  • Latin American governments (Colombia, Peru) receiving capacity building
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
Department of State:
U.S. companies sourcing responsibly mined gold:
Artisanal and small-scale gold miners seeking formalization:
Artisanal and small-scale gold miners in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru:
Latin American governments (Colombia, Peru) receiving capacity building:
Identified Costs
  • Department of State
  • Transnational criminal organizations and drug traffickers in gold supply chains
  • Officials of the Maduro regime engaged in illicit gold commercialization
  • Foreign persons laundering illicit gold assets linked to terrorists and drug traffickers
  • Foreign commodity traders controlling supply chains linked to illicit actors
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
Department of State: , , ,
Officials of the Maduro regime engaged in illicit gold commercialization:
Foreign commodity traders controlling supply chains linked to illicit actors:
Transnational criminal organizations and drug traffickers in gold supply chains:
Foreign persons laundering illicit gold assets linked to terrorists and drug traffickers:

Legislative Progress

In Committee
Introduced Committee Passed
Feb 27, 2025

Mr. Cornyn (for himself and Mr. Kaine) introduced the following …

Feb 27, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Feb 27, 2025

Introduced in Senate

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

Government
14 mentions across 7 clauses
+3 positive -11 negative

Department of State, Department of the Treasury, Latin American governments (Colombia, Peru) receiving capacity building

Department of State faces effects in multiple directions

Positive-direction: Latin American governments (Colombia, Peru) receiving capacity building, Latin American governments receiving sanctions framework assistance

Negative-direction: Department of the Treasury, Maduro regime and Venezuelan state gold enterprises (Minerven), Maduro regime in Venezuela, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Officials of the Maduro regime engaged in illicit gold commercialization, Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua, U.S. representatives at multilateral institutions and development banks

Criminal Organizations
2 mentions across 2 clauses
-2 negative

Transnational criminal organizations and drug traffickers in gold supply chains, Transnational criminal organizations involved in illicit gold mining

Commodity Trading
2 mentions across 2 clauses
-2 negative

Foreign commodity traders controlling supply chains linked to illicit actors, Foreign persons laundering illicit gold assets linked to terrorists and drug traffickers

Mining
2 mentions across 2 clauses
+2 positive

Artisanal and small-scale gold miners in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, Artisanal and small-scale gold miners seeking formalization

Manufacturing
2 mentions across 2 clauses
+2 positive

U.S. companies sourcing responsibly mined gold, U.S. gold refining and jewelry companies practicing responsible sourcing

Business
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Gold certification and traceability service providers

General Public
1 mention across 1 clause
-1 negative

Taxpayers

8/9
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Foreign Affairs Energy Criminal Justice Finance
Actor Mappings
"the_president"
→ President of the United States
"the_secretary"
→ Secretary of State
"the_administrator"
→ Administrator of USAID

Key Definitions

Terms defined in this bill

4 terms
"artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)" §3

A form of mining common in the developing world that employs rudimentary, low-cost extractive technologies and manual labor, is frequently subject to limited regulation, and often features harsh and dangerous working conditions.

"illicit actors" §3_illicit_actors

Includes persons on lists of US-designated foreign terrorist organizations, specially designated global terrorists, significant foreign narcotics traffickers, OFAC blocked persons, and drug trafficking organizations.

"key stakeholders" §3_key_stakeholders

Private sector organizations, industry representatives, and civil society groups representing communities in areas affected by illicit mining and trafficking of gold, including indigenous groups.

"relevant Federal departments and agencies" §3_relevant_agencies

State, Treasury, DHS (CBP, ICE), DOJ (FBI, DEA), Interior, USAID, and other agencies designated by the President.

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