Small scale gold miners in Kenya in front of a hand dug shaft. These miners have worked hard and are in the process of achieving fairtrade gold certification for their mine.
At a Glance
Fairtrade Gold gives miners and their families the opportunity to be paid a fair price and build their futures, investing in schools, better working conditions and improved healthcare.
Why Fair Trade Gold? Fair Trade gold offers the best chance for small scale miners to work their way out of exploitation and poverty.
The Fairtrade gold certification is an independently audited set of benchmarks created by Fairtrade International. The commercial platform with its standards and principals connect retailers to miners through a transparent and traceable supply chain. The result is that artisanal small-scale miners (ASM) are empowered to improve their livelihoods. Retailers and consumers are given assurances that the miners are fairly compensated for their efforts and that the environment around the mine is not contaminated with mercury or cyanide.
Reflective Jewelry uses fairtrade gold from the Sotrami mine in San Filomena, Peru. We will also be purchasing gold from Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania later in 2015. All our solid gold, one color rings, and two color rings by Katherine Aberle are made with fairtrade gold and stamped with the fairtrade stamp. Gold over silver pieces that are made with 100% fairtrade gold also will be hallmarked with the fairtrade gold stamp.
As we transition our inventory to fairtrade gold, we are separating our fairtrade gold inventory from our recycled gold inventory. Only our jewelry that is made with 100% fairtrade gold will receive the stamp. Our tracking of fairtrade gold through our system is independently audited by Fairtrade.
The Poverty of Gold
There are 15 million artisan and small-scale gold miners (ASM), with another 100 million people worldwide, who depend upon ASM for a living (miners and their families).
Small-scale miners extract between 10-15% of the global supply, yet make up 90% of the labor force in gold.
Small-scale miners are characterized by high levels of poverty, marginalization and exploitation; due to unfair terms of trade with traders, and a lack of protection for miners' basic human rights.
About Fairtrade Gold
Fairtrade Gold helps miners and their communities to work their way out of poverty.
Miners who comply with the Fairtrade Standards receive a Fairtrade Premium of $2,000 per kilo in addition to the guaranteed minimum price for their gold.
The Fairtrade Gold miners comply with health and safety standards; such as the abolition of child labor or forced labor and environmental protection. In addition all Fairtrade Certified Metals are also conflict free.
By having your beautifully crafted piece of jewelry created with fairtrade gold you're making a real difference to the community that sourced it.
A Situation Briefing
Artisan and small-scale miners work in very remote, marginal and harsh conditions. Often doing backbreaking work to scrap a living. Exploited by middlemen, their access to markets is limited and they rarely receive a fair price for their gold.
Poor and vulnerable men, women and children in Africa, Asia and Latin America are driven into artisanal mining because it can offer an alternative living where agriculture or other activities are not possible.
Artisanal miners find it hard to access legal mining rights, pushing them into orchestrating informal and illegal operations, just to put food on the table. They work in hazardous conditions with little or no health, or safety measures in place. The unskilled and often uninformed use of toxic chemicals, such as mercury, poses a severe risk to the health of the miners, their communities and their environment.
Fairtrade Certified Gold is a groundbreaking initiative that offers a real lifeline to these miners and their communities. Working with Fairtrade International, mining organizations are able to meet the strict Fairtrade Standards: working conditions, child labor, women's rights, cleaner technology, health, safety and responsible environmental management, in order to produce a gold product that can be stamped as Fairtrade. In return, the miners are able to gain market access and receive a Fairtrade Minimum Price and Fairtrade Premium, which in turn are used to develop their businesses and invest into their community's social development.
Fairtrade offers the millions of people working in artisanal mining, within developing countries, the best chance to work their way out of poverty and exploitation. By having your beautifully crafted piece of jewelry created with Fairtrade Gold you're making a real difference to the community that sourced it.