Susan Kingsley Calls for Responsible Gold Mining
Introduction:
Susan Kingsley is a co-founder of Ethical Metalsmiths. This article first appeared in the Denver Post on September 9th, 2008. Thanks to Susan for permission to post her piece on fairjewelry.org. ~Marc Choyt, Publisher
As jewelers and metalsmiths, we depend on the mining industry to supply the gold and other precious metals we use in our work.
Not only is jewelry-making our livelihood, we love our craft and care deeply about where the metals and gems we use come from and how they are mined. A gift of jewelry, especially gold, symbolizes, love, affection, and respect. No one wants to buy “dirty gold” or “blood diamonds,” nor do we want to use them.
At the Denver Gold Forum recently, market events and future gold prospects dominate discussion. What isn’t on the agenda, but should be, is acknowledgment of the serious pollution and human rights concerns that plague the industry worldwide and meaningful discussion about how and when the industry will begin to produce gold more responsibly.
More than 80 percent of U.S. gold consumption is for jewelry. Today’s consumers expect the market to give them choices, and increasingly they look for ethically made products, from fair-trade coffee to organic produce and safe plastic.
That’s why 34 leading jewelry retailers, ranging from Tiffany & Co. to Helzberg Diamonds, and hundreds of small-scale jewelers and metalsmiths—including me—have called on the mining industry to produce gold and other metals in more responsible ways.
We have endorsed a set of environmental and social principles, called the “Golden Rules” for more responsible mining. This list includes respecting human rights and workers’ rights, keeping mines out of wildlife habitat and natural reserves, and respecting local communities’ rights when it comes to deciding where to build mines.
These jewelry retailers and metalsmiths together comprise roughly 25 percent of the U.S. jewelry market. We have pledged to buy gold from mines that meet these criteria as soon as it becomes available.
Which it isn’t. While some mining companies assert environmental credentials, there is as of yet, no independent, third-party verification process to objectively evaluate which mines abide by the Golden Rules test and which do not. Without such a process, consumers cannot distinguish between products and won’t know whose claims to believe.
While it’s true that some mining costs have increased – we all feel the pinch of higher fuel costs – the industry is enjoying a major boom. Record profits and sky-high metals prices could give companies the room to guarantee that mines are planned and conducted responsibly. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
In some places, massive new mines are being forced on local communities that do not want them because of potential harm to critical water supplies and disruption of local economies that depend on healthy fisheries, farmland, or outdoor recreation and tourism.
For example, Anglo American and Northern Dynasty Minerals, are pushing to build a massive gold and copper mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska, home to the world’s most productive wild salmon fishery despite overwhelming opposition from local residents.
Water pollution also continues to be a problem. Denver-based Newmont plans to discharge mine waste into lakes in Canada. Similarly, Freeport McMoran continues to dump toxic waste into the Ajkwa River at the Grasberg Mine in Papua New Guinea.
Some mining companies continue to operate in military conflict zones where human rights abuses have been reported. And here at home, metal mining remains the country’s leading toxic polluter, according to the EPA.
We believe the mining industry can and must do better.
Responsible companies can begin by supporting independently verified standards for responsible mining and backing meaningful reform of the badly outdated 1872 Mining Law that allows water pollution and giveaways of public land and minerals throughout the West.
Metalsmiths, jewelers and consumers are demanding that mining companies leave dirty gold to the dustbin of history. Everyone stands to benefit from cleaner, greener, more responsibly mined gold. What is the mining industry waiting for?
