Fairtrade gold is the world’s first independent ethical certification system for gold.
What this means is that miners involved in producing the metal will have been offered a fair and guaranteed minimum price for their metal. The miners will have agreed to mine the gold under the standards set by the Fairtrade Foundation.
Fairtrade gold is more than just gold. It’s gold with heart. That means that we care about the miners who mine this most precious mineral for your gold jewellery, as well as the environment surrounding the mines where they work.
90% of gold miners work in Artisanal and small-scale mines. An estimated 100 million people worldwide rely on small-scale mining to support their families and communities, the second largest workforce to agriculture.
These gold mines can be hazardous places, with miners working in structurally insecure pits, without protective gear and using harmful chemicals such as mercury to recover the gold. This can lead to serious health problems and contaminate local water supplies.
Workers in Fairtrade certified gold mines receive a guaranteed Fairtrade minimum price for their product. The mines are checked on a regular basis to ensure that the Fairtrade standards are being met.
Miners from Limata mine in Peru have combined mining and other income generating activities to protect the environment and invest in the development of their community. In South Peru there is a collection of 10 mines. The use of the Fairtrade premium payment has been essential in dealing with the impact of COVID-19.
The Fairtrade mark ensures that gold has been extracted and processed in a fair and responsible manner. Miners’ organisations are strengthened. They can form groups to give themselves better bargaining power with traders to get a fairer return for their gold and gain greater control over the jewellery supply chain.
They are required to participate in the social development of their communities. The exploitation of farmers and workers is rife throughout the world and this goes for miners in the gold mining industry. This is why Fairtrade has been getting involved to put an end to it. We would like to have the Fairtrade standards applied to all gold mining so it is important to promote Fairtrade as an option wherever possible.
Child labour is not allowed and must be eliminated. No-one under 15 is allowed to work in any mine and those under 18 must not work in hazardous or dangerous conditions.
Due to Fairtrade, working conditions are improved and collective bargaining is respected. It is mandatory that there should be a responsible use of chemicals. Gold mining is one of the world’s most dangerous jobs.
In non- Fairtrade small-scale gold mines, miners can work in dangerous conditions with little or no health and safety equipment. Accident rates are six or seven times higher than in large scale mining. With toxic chemicals used in mining, they can cause birth defects, brain and kidney damage and can contaminate water supplies, entering the food chain through poisoned fish. They do not have enough money to use safer processing methods.
Fairtrade tackles these dangerous working conditions.
Mining is one of the worst forms of child labour because it is dangerous and demanding. High levels of poverty in small-scale mining communities mean children are forced to work to help increase their family income.
Fairtrade gold is the most precious commodity Fairtrade is working in and is worth $40,000 dollars per kilo in the global market.
Fairtrade does not receive this, I would like to make clear. Fairtrade only works to ensure that the miners get a fair share of this value and an additional $2000 per kilo as a minimum payment. Miners can reinvest the Fairtrade premium as they choose, whether that’s in their community, or to improve their business and work their way out of poverty, building better futures.
Fairtrade gold can be traced from the mine through the refining process and into finished products. This is backed up by documentation of all transactions between miners and licensed jewellers.
It means that consumers and jewellers know that the gold in products carrying the Fairtrade gold stamp comes from a socially and environmentally responsible source which has economic benefits for miners.
Believe it or not, there is a jeweller in Cardiff which uses Fairtrade gold. See the photograph on our Facebook page. So, people, when you are thinking of getting engaged and married, THINK OF FAIRTRADE GOLD!
