The first-ever small-scale gold mining cooperatives in Africa will take their final steps towards Fairtrade certification this autumn. The move presents the prospect of a brighter future for artisanal gold miners in East Africa, working in one of the world’s most dangerous and exploitative industries. Fairtrade met with some of the miners - during their journey towards applying to be audited against Fairtrade Standards - to find out more about the challenging circumstances they face on a daily basis.
Five million artisanal and small-scale (ASM) gold miners in the African continent live a hand-to-mouth, hazardous existence, earning less than $1 (65p) a day as they seek out fragments of gold to feed their families. The majority of this mining is carried out by informal, often illegal, operations and profits are made much further up the supply chain. Regular contact with toxic chemicals used to process gold such as mercury, cyanide, and nitric acid means miners face disease, serious injury, premature births and even death.
Fairtrade offers an answer. It gives both physical and documented traceability from mine to market and miners earn 95% of the London Bullion Market Association’s fixing for gold. They also earn a Fairtrade Premium of $2000 (£1,312) per kg to invest in economic, social and environmental projects.
The miners use mercury when extracting gold from ore. Mercury contamination and pollution can have terrible consequences – seizures, muscular and kidney problems, memory loss, speech disturbance and fatal illnesses. Fairtrade Standards mean miners can only use chemicals at the highest standards of health and safety and they are incentivised to phase them out and promote environmental conservation.
“The work is very dangerous,” says Chris Tula, a mercury mixer at the Nsangano pre-Fairtrade-certified mine in Tanzania. “I have to wear gloves to prevent the chemicals from entering my skin, poisoning my body and making me ill. To produce a single gold ball takes me half an hour. I heard that people in Europe and America pay a lot for the gold we mine here, but I barely earn enough to survive. Unfortunately, this is the only way I can make money.”
Tina Mwasha is the head of the Comic Relief financed Fairtrade gold project in Tanzania. The daughter of disadvantaged coffee farmers, Tina Mwashe passed an entrance exam to attend the Hakima Girl’s School which is supported by Kagera Co-operative Union, a Fairtrade coffee co-operative. An exceptionally high achiever, Tina received British Council sponsorship to study mineral engineering at University College Cardiff – the only woman on the course and the beginning of her journey in the male dominated world of mining.
“The poverty I experienced as a child pushed me to find a better future. I grew up living in a simple round house with a straw roof and grass on the floor,” says Tina. “I see myself as a role model for other women and girls and act as a mentor. When I graduated I was the only mineral processing engineer in the whole of Tanzania.
Many miners’ families are all too familiar with the incredible pain and sense of loss due to the risks associated with such a dangerous industry. Marsela Akware’s 18-year-old son drowned in an unregulated industrial pit while sluicing gold in 2014. The pit had been dug by an excavator and was very deep in unsafe with no structures in place to help prevent accidents from happening.
“They called me late in the afternoon to see whether my son’s older brothers could come to help get their sibling’s body out of the water,” remembers Marsala. “We all started running for the mine, but when I got there they wouldn’t let me any closer until they managed to retrieve his body from the water. Unfortunately, there is no alternative to mining if you want to have enough money for food.”
International companies have stopped sourcing gold from small-scale mines in Africa’s Great Lakes region – the countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of the Congo – because of legislation and regulation which demands proof that supply chains are not involved with conflict gold – the mineral’s equivalent to blood diamonds.
Small-scale miners do not have the means to provide this proof, and it makes them even more vulnerable. They are often forced into exploitative underground markets where unscrupulous traders play on their “illegality”. Women working on the mines spend countless hours labouring under the baking sun as rock crushers, all the time breathing in dust and fine particles.
“Before I started the job at the mines, I stayed at home with my son, but now I need extra money to put food on the table,” says Paulina Zablou. “Most days I crush between one and three bags of ore – depending on how much the miners give me.”
Common challenges include a lack of mining technology, modern equipment and capital. Mines are slowly making the transition to burning mercury in a retort to stop vapours escaping into the air which is hazardous for people and the environment.
“Before, we used to sluice the soil with bare hands and used mercury that damaged the skin on our hands,” says Margaret Padde. “But now, with Fairtrade, I have learned to protect myself. Hopefully with Fairtrade we will be able to get a fair price and afford to buy things like gumboots and gloves. Eventually we’ll also be able to buy a machine that will help us stop using mercury.”
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Fairtrade Foundation, sponsor of the spotlight on commodities series
