SMO Gold Crowns St Paul’s Cathedral

A HISTORIC RESTORATION

SMO GOLD CROWNS ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

St Paul’s Cathedral is preparing for a major conservation and regilding project involving the ball and cross atop its dome and the Golden Gallery.

Its gold will have a single source. We are proud to share that Bellevue, in Western Australia’s historic Goldfields and a member of the SMO community, has been chosen as the exclusive supplier, as The New York Times has reported.

The gold will come from the Bellevue Gold Project in Western Australia, which made gold-mining history in 2025 as the world’s first mine to achieve net zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. The milestone reflects substantial investment in renewable energy and emissions reduction, alongside renewable-energy certificates and ACCUs used for residual emissions. And through SMO’s segregated supply route, the gold used at St Paul’s will carry something equally unusual in the gold market: documented provenance back to the mine itself.

THE GOLD THAT WILL CROWN ST PAUL’S

The regilding is funded through a 2023 Landmark Grant from the Goldsmiths’ Company, the livery company that is home to the London Assay Office and celebrates its 700th anniversary in 2027.

Alongside that funding, Joanna Hardy, Second Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company and a senior elected official within the livery company, has been advising St Paul’s. In March she travelled with our co-founder Charlie Betts to see Bellevue for herself.

Gold mining can be an opaque industry and few mines open their doors to inspection. Bellevue welcomed Joanna and the close scrutiny that came with her. Her visit provided direct, first-hand due diligence on Bellevue’s operations and sourcing credentials.

A LANDMARK FOR TRACEABLE GOLD

That is why knowing where your gold comes from matters.

Most gold loses its history at the refinery, melted with metal from countless sources until nobody can say where it was mined. When you know the mine, you can access environmental and social information relating to the source of that gold. Sourcing gold for a project of this prestige carries great responsibility, and meeting it is the very principle SMO was founded upon.

As the world faces a climate crisis and some retreat from their net zero commitments, St Paul’s has the chance to stand as a beacon of hope in more ways than one. When institutions of this standing ask where their gold comes from, the whole industry hears the question. Their influence reaches far beyond one restoration. Projects like this, led by people the industry respects, are how gold reaches a tipping point of positive change.

GOLD WITH A LEGACY

Darren Stralow, Managing Director of Bellevue Gold, said:

“To be selected as the exclusive supplier of gold to St Paul’s Cathedral is a huge honour. The Cathedral’s Golden Gallery was last regilded in 1863, and the use of our ‘green gold’ means this will be a multi-generational legacy for Bellevue.”

We intend this regilding to change the industry for generations.

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Written by

Charlie Betts

Co-Founder & Managing Director, SMO Gold

Charlie Betts is Co-Founder and Managing Director of SMO Gold, and the ninth consecutive generation of the Betts family to lead Betts Group, a business focused on refining precious metals and manufacturing jewellery and investment products. He has seen first-hand the surge in consumer engagement with responsible sourcing, and understands the challenges jewellers face in acquiring gold with detailed provenance, reliably and at scale.

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