Laos wants more control of its gold – by building the bullion market it never had

[SINGAPORE] More than a century ago, French explorers in Laos told of peasants panning for gold in river valleys or mining rocks that contained the precious metal, before crushing the ore, swirling the powder in coconut shells and melting it into nuggets.

Today, artisanal miners dig in open pits – alongside the excavators and rotary drills of multinational giants that have long cashed in on the country’s mineral wealth.

Despite abundant reserves of the yellow metal, Laos captures only a fraction of its value due to the absence of a domestic bullion ecosystem.