LBMA Good Delivery Gold Bars — Refinery-Origin Supply

• The LBMA Good Delivery framework is a technical and conformity standard governing large-format gold bars used in international wholesale bullion markets.
• It defines the eligibility criteria required for a bar to be accepted within recognized trading environments.
• The framework applies to bar specifications and refinery approval status.

• The standard establishes minimum fineness thresholds and defined weight ranges.
• It requires mandatory markings, including refinery hallmark and unique serial identification.
• Physical characteristics and dimensional tolerances are part of conformity evaluation.
• Only approved refiners may produce bars recognized under the framework.

• Only refiners meeting defined technical, financial, and operational criteria may produce bars recognized under the Good Delivery framework.
• Refinery approval requires demonstration of production capability, quality control systems, and consistency in meeting specification parameters.
• Approved refiners are listed within the recognized Good Delivery refinery register.

• Refinery status is subject to ongoing compliance monitoring and periodic review.
• Conformity testing procedures may include assay verification and sample analysis.
• Failure to maintain standards may affect refinery approval status.

Confirming a specific bar’s purity means destroying part of it. The LBMA endorses no non-destructive testing method, and accurate fineness comes only from destructive assay of representative samples. Sampling a ≈400-ounce bar to prove its fineness falls outside wholesale settlement practice, so a buyer relies on the bar’s record rather than a test of the metal in hand.

In place of a test, the market trusts the credential and the record. A Good Delivery bar clears into approved custody at sight on two supports:

• the accreditation behind the refiner’s mark, held in place by the monitoring cycle
• an unbroken custody chain from the foundry forward

The chain removes re-assay at each handover; where a bar leaves it — private custody, an unaccredited carrier, a documentation gap — the metal is unchanged while at-sight acceptance is forfeited, and a re-assay step re-enters the transaction. The handover mechanics, and what a custody break costs at exit, run in the format comparison.

Two physical details reinforce the marks the chain depends on:

• marks are struck by pressure stamp or pneumatic punch and never laser-engraved, which keeps the serial and fineness tamper-evident at every inspection
• porosity has become a casting-quality concern vaults watch on acceptance

Confirming a specific bar’s purity means destroying part of it. The LBMA endorses no non-destructive testing method, and accurate fineness comes only from destructive assay of representative samples. Sampling a ≈400-ounce bar to prove its fineness falls outside wholesale settlement practice, so a buyer relies on the bar’s record rather than a test of the metal in hand.

In place of a test, the market trusts the credential and the record. A Good Delivery bar clears into approved custody at sight on two supports:

• the accreditation behind the refiner’s mark, held in place by the monitoring cycle
• an unbroken custody chain from the foundry forward

The chain removes re-assay at each handover; where a bar leaves it — private custody, an unaccredited carrier, a documentation gap — the metal is unchanged while at-sight acceptance is forfeited, and a re-assay step re-enters the transaction. The handover mechanics, and what a custody break costs at exit, run in the format comparison.

Two physical details reinforce the marks the chain depends on:

• marks are struck by pressure stamp or pneumatic punch and never laser-engraved, which keeps the serial and fineness tamper-evident at every inspection
• porosity has become a casting-quality concern vaults watch on acceptance

Before any metal is committed, the transaction clears a front gate. Counterparty eligibility is screened first:

• AML and KYC checks and source-of-funds review
• Sanctions screening against the OFAC, EU, UK, and UN regimes via Refinitiv World-Check
• Heraeus supplier terms and LBMA supply-chain standards applying in parallel

A proposal is priced against the LBMA reference and firmed only against a cleared counterparty; there is no executable price to act on before onboarding. Onboarding and the purchase pathway run through physical gold purchase.

Past the gate the sequence is fixed:

1. The contract names refiner, weight, fineness, and the serials bought.
2. The named bars are allocated to the counterparty’s allocated account.
3. Custody passes to the operator, not to Golden Ark Reserve — the bars sit at a third-party vault under the buyer’s account, with Brink’s executing storage and movement against contract, while Golden Ark Reserve holds none of the metal.