How the Nobel Committee Could Help Fight Conflict Gold

Jewelers are increasingly careful about the origins of their gold for two main reasons. The first is the link between gold and armed conflict.  Since 1998, a war in eastern Congo fueled by gold mining has claimed more than 5 million lives. The contribution of gold to the conflict is so substantial that a new U.S. law, which went into effect this year, requires some publicly traded U.S. companies to disclose whether the gold in their products could have contributed to the war.

The other reason is that gold mining is plagued by serious labor and environmental abuses. Industrial gold mining creates 20 tons of toxic waste for every gold ring. Artisanal, or small-scale, gold mining is the leading cause of global mercury pollution, and it relies heavily on child labor. Globally an estimated 600,000 children mine for gold in dangerous, slave-like conditions.
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