Gemstone supplier Gemfields has created a solution to promote transparency in the amount of wealth shared by governments when it comes to the private acquisition of natural resources.

Governments of host countries take a certain proportion of finances from natural resource companies, whether through taxes or dividends.

What Gemfields has labelled as ‘The G Factor’ is an equation used to work out a percentage which itself is an indicator of the share of natural resource wealth paid to a host country’s government.

It is for the proportion paid by an individual company – there is not a one-size-fits-all percentage for all companies working with a government.

Sean Gilbertson, Gemfields CEO, commented: “In an era witnessing significant strides in transparency and governance, and where extensive reporting on so many facets of corporate activity is already required in the annual reports of public companies, it is surprising that practical parameters allowing more direct insight into, and comparison of, the sharing of natural resource wealth still elude us.

“We invite collaboration, input and support for the adoption of the ‘G-Factor for Natural Resources’ as a step forward.

“We hope it will be voluntarily adopted by other companies, insisted upon by host countries and incorporated into projects such as EITI.”

The ‘G’ in ‘G Factor’ comes from ‘government’, ‘governance’, ‘good practice’ and ‘Gemfields’.