20 million miners. 100 million lives.
The open protocol and payment infrastructure eliminating mercury from artisanal gold mining through transparent processing and digital settlement.
The Problem
Fifteen to twenty million artisanal and small-scale gold miners work outside the formal economy, producing roughly 600+ tonnes of gold annually — a $65+ billion market at today's near-historic gold prices. Yet they remain dependent on intermediaries who control price, timing, and access. Mercury contamination poisons their communities and their product. They have no financial identity, no banking infrastructure, no agency.
After $630M+ spent over 50 years on aid programming and compliance efforts, mercury use in artisanal mining remains as prevalent as ever. Our mission is audacious, yet technical: build coexistence systems that fix broken market conditions — transparent, incentive-aligned, and capable of demonstrating Minamata compliance without requiring punitive enforcement.
The Protocol
PACTO Gold is not a mining company. It is not a franchise. It is the open protocol and payment infrastructure that makes responsible artisanal gold economically viable for any operator, anywhere.
PACTO Gold protocol hubs — operator-run ore-buying and processing centers — buy raw ore directly from mining communities before mercury is ever used, process it cleanly, and pay miners same-day via the Lightning Network — instant, borderless, no bank account required. The result is traceable, responsibly mined, mercury-free gold that commands premium prices from refiners and satisfies Minamata Convention compliance requirements that 150+ signatory nations have committed to but none has solved at scale.
PACTO Gold works not because it forces change, but because it aligns the incentives of every participant in the supply chain — from the miner to the refiner to the luxury brand — simultaneously and completely. When every incentive is aligned, the broken system doesn't need to be reformed. It simply becomes obsolete.
The way the HTTP protocol made the web possible for anyone who wanted to build on it — not owned by anyone, used by everyone, strengthened by every participant — PACTO Gold is the open infrastructure for responsible artisanal gold. Any operator anywhere in the world who wants to run a mercury-free hub can adopt the PACTO Gold protocol. They get the payment infrastructure, the compliance framework, the supply chain transparency, the LBMA pathway, the community relationship methodology — all worked out.
PACTO Gold earns a maximum 1% transaction fee on every gram that flows through the network. As the network grows and more hubs come online, that fee is designed to decrease — rewarding scale with lower cost to operators, and ensuring the protocol remains the most economical path to responsible gold for everyone who builds on it. At 100 hubs processing $10M in ore annually, that's up to $10M/year to the protocol company from a network moving $1 billion in responsible gold. At 1,000 hubs: up to $100M/year.
Dynacor Mining has operated this exact ore-buying model in Peru for decades — generating nearly $400 million annually with gold reaching LBMA Good Delivery standard through PX Précinox refinery. PACTO Gold is the open protocol that makes this model replicable globally. The pipeline of candidate hub sites is already under active assessment across five geographies: Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, El Salvador, and Costa Rica and Honduras.
El Salvador occupies a unique position in PACTO Gold's global strategy. As the world's first Bitcoin-native nation — with Lightning Network infrastructure already live across communities, schools, and commerce — El Salvador is the natural home for PACTO Gold's payment architecture. Miners paid same-day via Lightning, no bank account required, in a country where that infrastructure already exists and a visionary government has staked its identity on sovereign money. El Salvador could be the first country to author this global standard — not as an aid recipient, but as the sovereign nation that built the world's first Lightning-native protocol for responsible artisanal gold. Active conversations are underway with stakeholders in El Salvador's Bitcoin community.
Field Evidence — Peer-Reviewed, April 2026
In a peer-reviewed study published April 2026, Professor Veiga documented field results from 35 artisanal mining operations in Nigeria: average gold recovery of 42.7%, with miners losing more than half their gold while believing they were recovering nearly all of it. This is the problem PACTO Gold is built to solve.
Why It Works
Proven Economics. Real revenue from processing, refining, and premium pricing for traceable gold. Sustainable business model, not grant dependence.
Transparent Operations. Miners witness the entire process. Independent testing. Published results. Digital settlement creates auditable proof.
Aligned Incentives. Same-day payment eliminates the liquidity crisis that forces mercury use. Fair pricing removes the need for intermediaries.
Scalable Protocol. Designed for replication, not expansion. Each hub operates independently, generating local jobs and removing mercury from local communities.
When liquidity and trust exist, mercury disappears.
The Team
Prof. Marcello Veiga — Science and Technical Director
UBC Emeritus Professor of Mining Engineering. 300+ publications, fieldwork across 35 developing countries, architect of the GEF's global mercury reduction programs. The coexistence methodology at PACTO Gold's core is his life's work.
Toby Pomeroy — Founder
Fifty years in the jewelry industry. Sixteen years of mercury elimination fieldwork through Mercury Free Mining. Pioneer in Fairtrade and Fairmined gold. Board member, Alliance for Responsible Mining 2010–2024. The protocol is built on what he has witnessed, in community after community, for sixteen years.
The Market Opportunity
Gold near historic highs creates exceptional conditions for responsible artisanal mining operations. Premium refiners currently pay premiums of $50–100/oz over spot for traceable, ethically sourced gold — yet supply barely exists.
150+ signatory nations to the Minamata Convention have compliance requirements but no demonstrated proof-of-concept for scalable mercury elimination with digitally traced payments to miners. Swiss refiners and luxury brands want origin transparency — currently blocked by opaque middle-tier dealers who cannot provide proof-of-source without self-incriminating supply chain violations.
PACTO Gold processing hubs create that transparency by default. Every transaction is auditable, every payment is traceable, every ounce has documented and provable origin.
Seed Round Now Open
PACTO Gold is raising its seed round to deploy the first protocol hub and prove the model at scale.
Investors participate through Kingfisher Gold Resources LLC. We are seeking investors and operating partners who see what we see: a $65+ billion market where less than 3% of product reaches premium buyers — and a proven, replicable protocol to change that.
Seed Round: $2M — First hub deployment and community coexistence agreement, proof-of-protocol documentation, LBMA pathway validation, and supply chain transparency infrastructure.
We review all inquiries personally. Toby will be in touch directly.