A golden idea

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

This Christmas shopping season, as gift ideas turn to jewelry stores, take a moment to think about responsible gold shopping. You might just be able to make the earth a little greener.

Gold mining is a dangerous business. Not only are there the readily apparent dangers of mining - rock slides, underground entrapment and the like - but dangerous chemicals are also involved. Cyanide, arsenic and mercury have been used to extract gold from gold ore for years.

The U.S. Geologic Survey reports that the quicksilver (mercury) used by gold miners in the California gold rush in 1849 still contaminates ground water because hundreds of tons of mercury are still in the areas of the old mines.

Traditionally, miners have used a mercury amalgam process to separate ore from the surrounding rock. The resulting discard throws away the same amount of mercury as the gold that is mined. So every ounce of gold results in one ounce of discarded mercury. David Norman, professor of geochemistry at New Mexico Tech, said earlier this year that in Ghana alone, small-scale miners produce 10 tons of gold - resulting in an equal amount of mercury being released into the environment.

The results are not only ground water pollution affecting the drinking water for miles around mines, but a pollution that affects the miners directly. A sort of palsy is common to many miners, so common that it has a name in the Philippines: "mad hatter's disease."

Since mercury is so dangerous, many mines have turned to another chemical for gold extraction: cyanide, especially in mines that produce lower grade gold ore. The ore is crushed and sprayed with a cyanide solution to separate the gold out. The solution releases cyanide gas - which is the same gas used for gas chamber executions.

Arsenic is yet another byproduct of gold mining.

Besides the dangers of mercury, arsenic and cyanide, there is the concern of water depletion. Hydraulic mining is a very water intensive industry. In 2005, "The New York Times" reported that nearly 10 million gallons of water a day were being used to mine gold in Nevada - this country's largest gold producing state - a state that is already suffering from depleted water reserves, as is most of the U.S. Southwest.

In response, the Council for Responsible Jewelry Practices in London is seeking to develop industry standards for gold mining worldwide that would address these concerns. The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, (CAFOD), the aid agency for the Catholic Bishops in England and Wales, is supporting the effort and urging consumers to do the same. CAFOD has reported that the efforts to mine enough gold for one ring can create as much as 18 tons of waste.

In this country, also, there is a consumer campaign under way, to make "greener" gold. Led by Earthworks and Oxfam America, the campaign "No Dirty Gold," has issued a list of 22 major jewelry stores that have signed on its "Golden Rules" criteria for more responsible mining practices. These rules include efforts to clean up old mines, prevent pollution from new mines and develop safe labor standards and workers' rights.

So this Christmas, as you shop for gold, you might want to think green and support the retailers that have signed on to the Golden Rules. These include Zales, Signet (parent of Sterling and Kay Jewelers), Tiffany and Co., Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, Wal-Mart and ArtCarved.

For names of other retailers on the list, to view the Golden Rules for responsible mining or to learn more about responsible gold buying, visit www.nodirtygold.org. Not only Christmas - but the entire earth - will shine brighter for us all.