Setting Up a Gold, Precious-Metals or Diamond-Trading Company in the UAE

The Ministry of Economy supervises DNFBPs, dealers in precious metals and stones among them, to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. Its Anti-Money Laundering Department handles awareness, control and inspection of those activities. That supervision runs at state level and in commercial free zones, so a free zone address does not move a dealer outside it.

The Ministry also publishes Ministerial Decision No. 253 of 2025 on the conditions for registering DNFBPs with licensing authorities. Read it before choosing the licensing authority, because it describes what the authority expects to see.

Dealers report through goAML. The Ministry publishes a goAML registration section, a circular on goAML reporting requirements (Circular No. 8 of 2021), a video on submitting dealers in precious metals and stones reports, red-flag indicator material, and a data disclosure notice for dealers (Circular No. 2 of 2023). Circulars are updated, and the Ministry has issued supplemental guidance for dealers, so confirm which documents are current before building your programme. The reporting threshold and the penalty amounts sit in the Ministry's own guidance and decisions; confirm both there before you set cash policy.

For gold, Circular No. 2 of 2024 sets out due diligence for responsible sourcing. Ministerial Decree No. 68 of 2024 addresses how gold refineries adhere to it. Anyone buying gold from refiners, or refining themselves, should read both.

Diamonds, silver and jewellery have different supply chains. Confirm with the Ministry which sourcing documents apply to them. Do not assume that gold rules transfer, or that their absence means no duty.

If the plan includes refining or processing, the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT) runs an Industrial Registry in which companies register their information annually. Confirm with MoIAT whether industrial licensing applies to your process before you take premises.

A principal buys, takes title, holds stock and sells. A broker introduces and earns commission, with no title. They look alike on a brochure. They look very different in a ledger and to a bank.

Keep them apart. Mixing commissions with principal inventory in one set of books blurs who owns what at any moment, which is exactly what a compliance officer cannot sign off. If a group does both, use separate entities. A holding or treasury company can sit alongside, as long as it has a real role.

Stage of the trade matters too. Bullion wholesale, jewellery distribution and scrap each carry different origin evidence and different cash behaviour. Pick the narrowest model that matches the plan and add later steps (retail, refining, re-export) as separate decisions.

Anyone entering or leaving the UAE with precious metals or valuable stones must make a disclosure under Article 10 of Federal Decree by Law No. (10) of 2025, through the system issued by the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security. Goods that cross the border are declared to customs. Dubai Customs lists the iDeclare application among its services; confirm with the customs authority for your emirate what documents and registrations your imports and exports need, because the answer depends on the form of the metal and where it enters.

For VAT, the FTA provides VAT registration through its eServices, and publishes VAT topics, guides and public clarifications. Look there for the treatment of precious metals and stones, including any special accounting for them, and confirm it with a registered tax agent before your first invoice. Make sure the invoice, the customs record and the ledger entry describe each consignment the same way.

A bank underwrites the transaction trail. For each consignment it wants to see origin evidence, who the counterparties are and how they were screened, when title passes, how payment arrives and whether any cash is involved. The documents should agree with each other. If the supplier file says one thing, the customs record another and the accounting entry a third, the account will not open.

Onboarding in this sector is slow and refusals happen. Prepare one fully documented sample transaction before applying, and a cash policy in writing. The corporate bank account readiness work is built around that, and the source of wealth and funds evidence for the owners usually travels in the same file. Cost depends on the route more than on any registration fee. How Velarozone works is to test the trail first, and Velarozone's own fee is itemised in the engagement letter.

Dealers need someone who owns the AML programme: customer and supplier due diligence, screening, red-flag escalation and goAML filings. Banks look for that person early. Add staff who run stock and reconcile it to the ledger, and arrangements for vaulting and secure transport that match the value carried. The compliance owner and the person who approves trades should not be the same individual where the business is large enough to separate them.