Where the money comes from, link by link — and where a dealer's margin would sit
A dealer's business model fits in one sentence: he buys at one price, sells at another, and the difference is his. Anyone who has bought metal over a counter understands that chain completely, which makes it a good place to start from. What follows is the same kind of walk-through for a payout that begins in a pit in Madre de Dios rather than at a counter — every party on the route, what each one takes, and where you can look.
| Link | Who acts | What comes off here | Where you can look |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extraction | Minerales San Hilario S.C.R.L. | Nothing yet — grams, not money | INGEMMET concession #070011405 |
| Sale | Authorised buyers | The market price of that day | Published gold reference prices |
| Operating costs | The operation | Plant, fuel, people, compliance | Programme reporting |
| Programme fee | The programme | A share of what is left | The reward formula |
| Distribution | The contract on Ethereum | Nothing — it transfers | Token transfers; CertiK, PeckShield |
AYNI Gold — key figures
The programme these pages describe — AYNI Gold: participation tied to a licensed Peruvian gold operation, with rewards measured and paid in metal (PAXG) rather than in a project token.
*Target Variable Reward is a target, not a guarantee; actual rewards vary and may be zero.
Where a dealer earns, and where this earns
The dealer earns on the distance between two prices, and his income is indifferent to what gold does next: he needs turnover, not appreciation. A production route earns somewhere else entirely — on the difference between what the metal sells for and what it cost to get out of the ground. That one change relocates every risk on the route. The dealer's worry is volume; the operation's worry is grade, weather, machinery and fuel.
The route, link by link
First the metal is extracted, under INGEMMET concession #070011405, by the operator Minerales San Hilario S.C.R.L. Then it is sold to authorised buyers — the step that turns grams into money. Operating costs come off: plant, fuel, people, compliance. A programme fee comes off after that. What remains is what the programme calls the estimated reward, and the arithmetic is written openly as extraction − operating costs − programme fee. It is then distributed in PAXG, which turns the money back into a claim on metal before it reaches you.
Which link can fail, and what happens then
Every link has its own way of going wrong and none of them are hidden. Extraction can under-deliver in a season. The sale price is the gold market and nobody controls it. Costs can rise faster than output. The distribution step depends on a contract that has been reviewed by CertiK and PeckShield but is still software. If the first three go badly enough, the arithmetic produces nothing: rewards are variable and may be zero. That is the honest description of a route with no dealer's margin underneath it acting as a cushion.
What is written down at each step
The licence is a matter of record: concession #070011405, operator RUC 20606465255, the company incorporated 17 August 2023. The Phase 1 scoping study is dated May 2025. Production has one measured instance rather than only a plan — the May 2026 pilot moved 13,434.8 grams of extracted gold and distributed $307,000 to participants. Issuance, locks and distributions are events on Ethereum. Whether that is enough evidence is your judgement; the point of this page is that each link has a document, and you can ask for them one link at a time.
No margin underneath means no cushion either
A dealer's spread does something quietly useful for the dealer: it makes his income stable whatever the metal does. A production route has no such buffer anywhere along it. That is the reverse side of being able to follow the money — the same openness that lets you name every party on the route also means a poor season reaches you directly, without a margin in between to absorb it.
So the things worth watching are the ones that sit at the first three links: how much was extracted, what it cost, and what the metal sold for. The fourth link, distribution, is the only one that is purely mechanical — and it is the one with the audits attached.
FAQ
- Who takes a cut before I see anything?
- Operating costs come off first, then the programme fee. The arithmetic is stated as extraction minus operating costs minus programme fee, and what remains is distributed in PAXG.
- How is that different from the dealer's spread I already pay?
- A spread is charged on your transaction and does not depend on any metal being produced. Here nothing is charged on a transaction, and equally nothing exists to distribute unless metal is extracted and sold.
- Has the route ever run end to end?
- The May 2026 pilot distributed $307,000 to participants from 13,434.8 grams of extracted gold. That is one measured run, not a forecast for any later period.
- What happens if a season produces less than expected?
- The distribution follows the arithmetic. Less extraction against the same costs means a smaller reward, and the reward may be zero.
- Where does the gold price enter the route?
- At the sale step, which converts grams into money. It is one input of three; the other two are how much was extracted and what it cost to extract.