Aladdin Separation Technologies : 04/01/2022

Stamp Program Objectives

In order to address the global mercury problem, Aladdin has developed the Strategic Abatement of Mercury and Poverty (STAMP) program. This program is designed to induce artisanal and all mercury mining users to adopt Aladdin's highly efficient mining technologies. The fundamental strategy looks to illustrate the economic advantages of HGP to the miners. Although being able to provide a safe work environment , safety benefits alone are not sufficient to convince indigent miners to abandon mercury processing. Ultimately, the success of the program must rely on its ability to provide the miners with a greater level of income than what they are able to derive when using mercury. The broad objectives of the STAMP Program are as follows:

1. Employ as many artisanal miners as is possible while maintaining the economical integrity of the program.

2. Work to eliminate the use of mercury when extracting gold in the customary artisanal alluvial concentrates and hard rock deposit areas.

3. Increase artisanal miner wages above the national average and provide bonuses based on gold revenues.

4. Create new employment opportunities and provide training for higher paid jobs in the trades, management, administration, accounting, mining, geology, process engineering, and attendant disciplines.

5. Provide a humanitarian fund to benefit the miners and their families.

6. Convert sites to farming land or forestry after gold is depleted from the properties.

7. Attract artisanal miners to proven gold reserves set aside by large scale mining companies and / or the government.

8. Make a profit for all stakeholders

Aladdin's Pledge To Social Responsibility

Aladdin Technologies Inc. is dedicated to bringing environmentally friendly processes to host countries so that mineral wealth can be extracted in a way that does not endanger local ecosystems or the health of native people. This interest - coupled with a commitment to mutual respect and a close involvement with all stakeholders - is behind the company's drive to help the government and citizens of countries achieve maximum benefit from their mineral resources. We also recognize that shareholder interests are best served when - based on our ethical treatment of indigenous people and sensitivity to environmental issues - countries actively seek out business relationships with the company.

Social responsibility is not simply an abstract concept, but rather, a realistic moral command and business strategy. Aladdin will do whatever is reasonable to help the communities of people around the world with which it interacts. Therefore, to disregard the tenants of mutual respect and fair trade would not only be morally corrupt, but it could also damage shareholder value in company mineral endeavors. Aladdin endeavors to be a leader in the way in which it brings obligations of social responsibility to its business enterprises.

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Venezuelan Tainted Gold

Mining in southern states has led to deforestation and polluted waters. People use mercury in artisanal mining, leading to an increase in mercury poisoning. Miners, some as young as 10 years old, endure harsh working conditions, including working 12-hour shifts without protective gear. Mining has impacted Indigenous communities, including by forcing displacement.

Friday, April 29, 2022

14 regions devastated by illegal mining – Mining consultant

Lots of the country’s farmlands have been destroyed by illegal mining operations and waterbodies silted, polluted and contaminated with dangerous chemicals like mercury, cyanide, lead and arsenic.

Indonesia gold mine landslide kills 12

Landslides, flooding and collapses of tunnels are just some of the hazards facing miners.

Most gold ore processing involves highly toxic mercury and cyanide and workers frequently use little or no protection.

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Galamsey: Fourteen (14) Regions Devastated by Illegal Mining Activities – Dr. Solomon Owusu Reveals to Government

Lots of the country’s farmlands have been destroyed by illegal mining operations and waterbodies silted, polluted and contaminated with dangerous chemicals like mercury, cyanide, lead and arsenic. These have led to skyrocketing costs of water treatments for human consumption. Also, there are lots of water-borne and grievous diseases such as typhoid, hepatitis, trachoma, ulcer, cancer, kidney diseases, lung diseases, liver damage, polio, among others.

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Water Pollution: Stakeholders Urge Nigerian Government, Osun State To Stop Illegal Gold Mining

SaharaReporters recently reported that water bodies in the state had been highly contaminated with mercury, lead and cyanide as a result of illegal mining activity currently going on in parts of the state, putting the health of residents at risk.

After Five Years Of Sustained Action: Galamsey Fight Far From Over

"People from Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire and Benin are involved in small-scale mining in some communities, and it is disheartening that Ghanaians are allowing this to happen.

“Animals are dying because they drink from diverted water that has been polluted by mercury," Mr Duker said.

SPECIAL REPORT: Osun in the mud as mining greed intensifies

Citing laboratory test results, Osogbo-based not-for-profit Urban Alert said dangerous chemicals such as mercury, lead and cyanide are discharged into the river due to the mining activities, thereby endangering human and aquatic lives.

“We collected samples from four points of the Osun River and tests were carried out in collaboration with senior researchers from the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. Analysis shows the contamination of the water and presence of mercury, lead and cyanide,” Mr Adejuwon, the team lead of Urban Alert, said.

Friday, April 22, 2022

Venezuela and Brazil: Violence and destruction escalate in the Yanomami territory

The situation in the Yanomami territory in Brazil is also catastrophic, and now resembles a war zone. Hutukara and Wanasseduume, Indigenous organizations representing the Yanomami and Ye’kwana in the Yanomami territory, launched a shocking report this month: “Yanomami under Attack” which documents violence, sexual abuse and high rates of malaria and mercury poisoning among the Yanomami as a result of the illegal mining.

Presence of heavy metals in the Osun River would lead to pandemics – Stakeholders

The heavy metal contamination of the Osun River, in the coming years, if left untreated, poses a great health risk and would lead to pandemics in the state’s communities and nearest states using water, shout the stakeholders.

According to them, the Osun River has been heavily contaminated with mercury, lead, cyanide and other harmful elements that are toxic to human health.

Thursday, April 21, 2022

New report pieces together toll of environmental damage in Venezuela in 2021

Other satellite readings show that the mining of gold, cobalt and other minerals expanded dramatically, not only polluting many rivers and streams with chemicals like mercury, but also clearing large sections of forest in the states of Amazonas and Bolívar.

Artisanal Gold Miners in Sierra Leone Get Their First Responsible Trade Association

“Sierra Leone’s burgeoning artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector provides critical livelihoods for women and young men in a place where viable income-generating options are few,” according to Pact. “But the country’s ASGM sector is also largely informal and associated with a range of serious social and environmental challenges, including mercury use.”

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Amid illegal Amazon gold mining, Indigenous land defenders get reinforcements

For over a decade, illegal gold mining has led to mercury-contaminated waters, deforestation, murders, rape and sex-trafficking in Indigenous lands and communities. Recently, a group led by other Indigenous people, armed by miners, killed two Yanomami people and wounded five others.

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Thousands of indigenous people demonstrated in traditional guise in Brasilia against the president’s plans to commercially exploit their land.

This practice threatens the people who live there and the nature that surrounds them. Because the mercury used to separate gold from the sediment poisons the rivers, contaminates the soil.

According to the WWF, 70 percent of the mercury ends up in the atmosphere, 30 percent in the soil and in the water. And because the indigenous people eat fish and fruit, the mercury ultimately reaches them – and endangers their health.

Huge 'blood mines' discovered in Amazon - with one so big it has its own church

Across the Amazon, miners pour litres of deadly mercury into the water’s ecosystem as they amalgamate the gold, while dredging has turned the “Blue River” brown.

A study revealed 306,000 locals in the municipality of Santarém had dangerously high levels of mercury in their blood from eating affected fish.

Friday, April 15, 2022

2,000 Concerned People Sign Petition To Save Osun River

“Physical assessment and scientific studies have revealed that the Osun River colour change is as a result of illegal and unregulated gold mining activities in some parts of Osun State, Nigeria. Laboratory tests have further confirmed that the 213km Osun River has been heavily contaminated with mercury, lead and cyanide as a result of the activities of the gold miners.

Thursday, April 14, 2022

18 dead in overloaded truck crash in Indonesia's West Papua

Landslides, flooding and collapses of tunnels are just some of the hazards facing miners. Much of gold ore processing involves highly toxic mercury and cyanide and workers frequently use little or no protection.

Thousands of indigenous people demonstrate against gold mining

Roberto Maldonado, Brazil consultant at the environmental protection organization WWF, sharply criticized the planned legislative projects as a “license to the poisonous gold rush”: “If the government legalizes illegal gold mining, then it cements its devastating social, health and ecological consequences: people poisoned with mercury, animals and bodies of water and destroyed forests.”

Establishing Sierra Leone’s first formal gold mining association for responsible trade

Sierra Leone’s burgeoning artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector provides critical livelihoods for women and young men in a place where viable income-generating options are few. But the ASGM sector here is also largely informal and associated with a range of serious social and environmental challenges, including mercury use.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Illegal Mining, Abuses Surge on Brazil Indigenous Land, Report Finds

Illegal miners with links to organized crime are accused of numerous abuses in indigenous communities, including poisoning rivers with the mercury used to separate gold from sediment and sometimes deadly attacks on residents.

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Illegal Gold Rush Is Squeezing Native People in Brazil’s Amazon

Besides environmental damage, 273 communities suffer the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria, malnutrition, contamination by the mining byproduct methyl mercury, and overload on health systems. The study estimates that more than 16,000 people are affected, or 56% of the population in Yanomami lands.

Report: Illegal mining, women abuses spike on Brazil Indigenous land

Illegal miners with links to organised crime are accused of numerous abuses in Indigenous communities, including sometimes deadly attacks on residents and poisoning rivers with the mercury used to separate gold from sediment.

Monday, April 11, 2022

Mercury as a Global Pollutant Virtual Conference

The 15th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP), themed 'Reducing Mercury Emissions to achieve a Greener World', will run as a virtual event taking place over 25th-29th July 2022.

Developing a national action plan to reduce, and where feasible, eliminate mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining

The Minamata Convention on Mercury, opened for signature in October 2013 in Japan, creates a blueprint for actions to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.

Saturday, April 9, 2022

Gold industry groups aim to 'squeeze out nefarious practices' with tracking tech

Roughly 20% of global gold production comes from "artisanal and small-scale" gold miners, according to a report from the World Gold Council. The segment of miners also generates employment and income for an estimated 20 million workers worldwide, who can earn more money in mining than in other sectors such as fishing, farming or forestry. However, some of these smaller operations are also rife with environmental and social challenges, including the uncontrolled use of mercury, deforestation, water contamination and financial ties to criminal groups.

Pure Gold Mining: What Impact Is It Having on Our Planet?

When it comes to the impact of mining on the planet, mercury causes the biggest stir. This isn’t only because of how toxic it is but also what it is now used for.

In many artisanal and small-scale mining operations, mercury plays a crucial part. This liquid metal is necessary to extract gold from rocks and sediments. Many bad practices cause man-made mercury pollution alongside fossil fuels.

Troubled waters • How illegal gold mining activities pollute Osun-Osogbo, Oyo, Ogun rivers

It was found out that the water in the Osun River contains dangerous chemicals including, arsenic, lead and mercury. The studies revealed that the dangerous chemicals are always the results of devastating effects of gold mining on nearby water resources.

Friday, April 8, 2022

Ghana: Fight Against Galamsey - Lands Ministry Denies Spending Gh₵10m On Confabs, Dialogues

"The cost of all these and many other programmes and policies being implemented by the Ministry, including the revamping of the Community Mining Schemes, establishment of Small Scale Mining Committees in the various mining districts of our country, resourcing of the Minerals Commission, and the introduction of the mercury-free gold katcha, form part of the Ministry's expenditure on the fight against illegal scale mining," the statement noted.

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Sudan: The devastating effects of gold mining on

“Mercury has detrimental effects on the health of workers and the environment. The worst thing is that in this region, tons of mining residues are also exploited by companies that use cyanide. Of course our land contains gold, but the way it is extracted is an attack on future generations.”

Monday, April 4, 2022

Ghana nature hit hard by gold mines - but future looking up

For us as an organization, the focus was to help small-scale miners produce gold sustainably. We use the Fairmined Standard, which helps ensure sustainable practices, and it looks at the use of mercury in mines as well. Our work involves going to the mines to train them there, and we have to provide working gear, so that's a bit expensive. But for us, this is one of the biggest parts of the project because it's one strategy that has really helped - it will help provide skills over the years.

Minerals diversification key policy to achieving goals for mining industry – Jinapor

She said the introduction of the mercury project had been deployed for use by small scale miners to ensure that they optimized their operations in the most environmentally responsible manner.

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Help us protect rivers - Mireku Duker appeals to chiefs

Mr Duker said aside from the activities of the illegal miners affecting the river, “these miners also use mercury, thus poisoning the river and endangering the lives of the communities that depend on it as a source of drinking water”.

Friday, April 1, 2022

Postcard from Lima: The curse of black gold

Children and adults across Loreto’s four main river basins – the Pastaza, Marañón, Tigre and Corrientes – were found to have levels of toxic heavy metals, such as mercury and lead, way above safe norms, according to blood and urine tests carried out by Peru’s health ministry in 2016.

NEWSUrban Alert demands FG’s involvement in Osun river crisis

The civic initiative, Urban Alert, had raised an alarm earlier this year in its press release tagged #SaveOsunRiver that the river is heavily contaminated with mercury, lead, cyanide and other injurious elements that are poisonous to human health.

River pollution: Osun govt blows hot, declares war on illegal miners

While enjoining the citizens of the state to report suspicious and degrading mining activities within their communities, she explained that the State will not allow selfless miners endanger the environment and the Osun River as it is a heritage worth protecting.