About Nelum
Bridging responsible supply chains and financial markets
Nelum exists because a responsible supply chain and a functioning market should not be at odds. We help producers, refiners and buyers meet the standards that keep their material accepted, accountable and traceable — starting with the metal where that is hardest.
The gold supply chain has generated vast riches and shaped economies for centuries. It has also left behind real problems: inconsistent quality, unreliable lead times, high transportation risk, and communities that do not always share in the benefit of the mining on their land.
Standards from the OECD and the London Bullion Market Association give the industry a shared framework for responsible sourcing. Our work is to help producers and refiners across Nigeria implement that framework gradually and practically, so their material stays acceptable to the markets that price it.
Doré is where we started because it is the hardest case: unrefined, so content is disputable; often hand-carried, so the paperwork is unusual; priced against a moving benchmark, so the terms need stating precisely. The platform carries refined gold, silver, tin, tantalum, tungsten and petroleum as well — doré was the first market, not the only one.
Four convictions the product is built on
Each of these shows up as something concrete in the software, not as a value on a wall.
- Verification should cost the same for everyone
- A two-person cooperative in Zamfara clears the same check as a refining group in Dubai. Any check that is easier for the large party is not a check — it is a moat, and this market already has enough of those.
- Formalisation beats exclusion
- The standard response to risk in artisanal supply is to stop buying from it. That does not reduce the risk, it just moves the metal into channels nobody is looking at. Bringing producers into a documented chain is the harder answer and the only one that works.
- A record is worth more than a certificate
- Certificates state a conclusion. Records let somebody else reach their own — which is what a compliance function, an auditor or a bank is actually asking for when they ask about provenance.
- Being paid out of the trade would compromise all of it
- We charge a subscription and take no commission, brokerage or success fee. A platform whose revenue rises with the deal has an interest in the deal closing, and no business claiming to be neutral about it.
How we approach it
Three commitments that decide which partners we work with and which features get built.
Where the work is concentrated
One production corridor, Nigeria into Dubai, built properly rather than several claimed. A corridor needs its own document set, its own clearing practice and its own verified providers on both legs before it is worth calling open.
Our compliance approach- Zamfara & Kebbi
- The deepest artisanal gold production in the country, and the reason formalisation here is a public-health question as much as a commercial one.
- Osun & Kaduna
- Established artisanal output alongside licensed operators, and the states where cooperative structures are furthest along.
- Niger State & the Middle Belt
- Growing production with documentation practice that varies most between operators — which is exactly what a shared record is for.
- Lagos & Abuja
- Where the material leaves. Licensed export, hand-carry and freight, and the clearing practice the whole corridor depends on.
Who is doing it
Nelum is run by people who have traded this material and built the systems that regulated institutions rely on — a combination this problem needs and rarely gets.
Meet the teamWant to know where you stand?
Get in touch and we will walk through your current supply chain against OECD and LBMA expectations.