The Fairtrade organization has been campaigning for fair working conditions in developing countries since the 1990s.    

Behind the Fairmined label is the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), an organization based in Colombia and France that was founded in 2004 by an international group of people who had previously worked in small-scale mining and environmental protection. 

Beginning in 2009, ARM collaborated with Fairtrade International to develop a standard that resulted in the first certified Fairtrade and Fairmined gold. 

In 2013, Fairmined and Fairtrade decided to continue working separately for organizational reasons. As a result, there are now two separate certifications that differ only slightly.