Category Archive

What a day yesterday was…I’m relishing the privilege of being here! Unfortunately, we don’t have wifi at our hotel so it makes communication a bit more challenging. Festus and his son Wise took us shopping for safety gear in Kumasi and later in the evening we met with six of the GNASSM team who will accompany us to the testing … Read More

We’re on the bus between Accra & Kumasi, a 5-6 hr ride, very comfortable. Not much to share yet but I LOVE the culture & the people. Delighted to be here, what a gift! Excellent food. Jacob Massaquoi is an excellent host, is managing everything wonderfully. He gave me this Ghanaian shirt he had made for himself! We will meet … Read More

Mercury Free Mining to Field Test New GOLDROP Equipment in Ghana It is estimated that millions of artisanal gold miners in developing countries pan for gold using mercury and in the process release nearly 8,000 lbs. of the toxic metal into the environment every day. Mercury pollution is increasing around the world and is devastating to the physiological and neurological … Read More

By Caelen Burand In Indonesia miners flock to the island of Sumbawa in the hopes of accessing a stable income. They search for gold as a means to escape poverty and trade their health in to obtain it. A simple longing to earn a living traps these miners in the disastrous use of mercury in gold refinement. The land these … Read More

by Frederick Gillingham, Melisa Valenzuela on 10 October 2019 https://news.mongabay.com Decades of internal conflict have fueled an unprecedented surge in illegal mining in Colombia’s Choco region, decimating the Atrato River basin and provoking an environmental and humanitarian crisis. In a landmark ruling in 2016, Colombia’s Constitutional Court granted the Atrato environmental personhood rights just as the country signed historic peace … Read More

By Kevin Telmer – September 05, 2019 The Miami Herald in 2018 and now Buzzfeed and the NYT in 2019 have published, once again, the typical easy story on alluvial gold mining in the Amazon: The very simplistic and oft repeated “mining is bad” story. They cast a pall over any and all that are involved in artisanal mining. What … Read More

When I met with Toby Pomeroy at the AGTA Show in Tucson in February 2019, I didn’t expect to be moved to action. But what he said resonated deeply with me as I became aware of an immense global problem, and was encouraged by an even greater opportunity. As the former President of the Gemological Institute of America for 20 … Read More

 Gold is one of the world’s most valuable metals, used in everything from electronics to dentistry. But do you know where yours comes from? 20% of gold comes from artisanal and small-scale miners, who often work illegally using toxic chemicals such as mercury and cyanide, due in large part to the profound absence of opportunity and support. The Minamata … Read More

From the New York Times 30 August 2019 Producer/Director Brent McDonald If you’re reading this on your phone, you may be holding illegally mined gold from Colombia, where the precious metal has replaced cocaine as the main source of income for organized crime. The growing demand for gold as a conductive metal used in phones and other electronic products has … Read More

The Mercury Free Mining Challenge (MFMC), a team of leaders in jewelry and materials sciences working toward a safe alternative to toxic mercury use in small-scale gold mining, has made its cause the topic of conversation at recent conferences in Tucson, Atlanta, Chicago, New York – and now in Paris. With the aim to transform jewelry, mining and global heath … Read More