The technique was passed down by Palomino’s ancestors, former African slaves. Palomino says it’s slower and extracts less gold, but he has no interest in using mercury.
“We’ve mined gold like this all our lives,” he said.
And because the technique is chemical-free, Palomino earns a 15 percent premium over the world price for gold through a UK-based outfit called Fairtrade and Fairmined.
Green Gold project director Felipe Arango says Fairtrade and Fairmined gold costs more, but he believes there’s a market for it.
“Our bet is that if we can attach a value to it and if we can get consumers to recognize it, it should be enough,” Arango said. “The forests and the ecosystems that are around these mines should be more valuable than the gold itself.”
The idea behind these and other efforts is to do for gold mining what the organic and fair trade movements are doing for food production.
“This is a sector that can transform itself,” says Lina Villa, who heads the Alliance for Responsible Mining in MedellĂn.
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