If you are waiting on Tamiflu to help you recover from the flu - any flu, you could be waiting for no reason. Seasonal influenza is showing a tolerance for Tamiflu rendering the vaccine useless. It seems the virus has started to develop a resistence against the popular vaccine. Reuters is reporting that Austraila and now Hong Kong join the list of countries reporting this resistence. That is added to North America and parts of Europe.
Community and Small Scale Mining is based out of the World Bank. Facts from CASM, there are 15 million Artisanal and Small Scale miners in the world. Okay, that's a lot BUT the industry affects the livlihood of over 100 Million people. That is 100 Million with an "m". Metal mining is one of the last resources that communities turn to for resources/survival. This is even below agriculture. On another note, be sure to watch "Diamond Road" on HD Discovery. There are a lot of linkages between diamond mining and gold mining. Discovery really did a great job in their 3-part special on Diamonds from mines to shop.
Gold mining causes many problems. I have barely scratched the surface. On the small scale mining front, local communities deal with miners that are not from their region. These miners do not have any real sense of responsibility to the surround area. Many miners use inapprorpiate tools and technologies that lead to all types of environmental poisoning like in rivers, air pollution, and reports/incidents of work-related injuries. Many experts agree that the most harmful technology employed by these small scale miners is the process of mercury-based amalgamation. A process only now have I begun to familiarize myself with. In a nutshell, it involves (excuse my lack of education here) mixing mercury with gold slurries (gold particles), then heat the mix to separate the gold from them. If I find a better definition - because I am still not sure I understand this one - I will post it.
It is becoming increasingly important to raise awareness of small scale miners of how their operations impact the environment, expose them to alternate safe methods of obtaining their gold (such as Cleangold Sluice, I hope to provide more information on this technology soon), and how to obtain the gold at a lower cost. If you can show small scale miners that they can employ alternate techniques that are safer and cleaner and still show a financial gain, why wouldn't they use it? Well mistrust is one problem that is hard to get around. Miners also still don't understand the huge health and environmental impact that mercury causes.
Mining is practiced in the open, so there are no waste collection systems. So mercury contamination is subjected to air and water. The way the amalgamation process is employed with the use of grinders, mercury is atomized and forms a power like substance (mercury flour) that is no longer viable for amalgamation so new raw material is used. Where does the mecury flour go? It is discarded and dumped. Little if any protection gear is used in the handling of mercury. It is also breathed into the lungs of the miners, and carried through rainfall deposition which means it pollutes terrestrial ecosystems by the very nature that it can travel large distances. In the water, it can travel through the food chain lodging contamination into animal tissue.
Why do artisinal small miners use Mercury in the mining process to begin with? Well, it's easy to use, accessible, and cheap. As I stated before, most miners are unaware of the health and environmental risks. Hg, is not allowed to be used for mining in most countries. I found that surprising but true. It enters countries legally for dental use and is sold to mining companies for dental use as in animal dental treatments. The UK, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, U.S., Canada are all exporters of Hg.
Sources:
1. www.parkswatch.org
2. Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 109
3. Global Mercury Project "Next Steps"
Ethical gold has certainally received a lot of press as of late. Urth Solution is an emerging company that is just starting to take off it looks like in January 2008. Meanwhile, organizations like the World Bank have been working for years with developing countries and gold mining companies to produce less dirty gold and work towards industry standards.
The following link has an excellent article from the International Harold Tribune on mining companies plumbing even deeper into the earth for gold mining.
I wanted to post this as soon as I saw it. MSNBC has a really good animated timeline posted on their site regarding the progression of the bird flu. It is very interesting to watch it unfold - also slightly scary to see the rapid and obvious increase in spread and sophistication of the disease itself. It's coming. After I finish the Dirty Gold article, I want to look into Avian Influenza more, global efforts, response, and preparedness. I also am starting to add content into the documents section for the upcoming article.
There are a lot of reasons to be concerned about gold mining. Gold operations often come into communities uninvited and leave behind a toxic nightmare. The World Bank is doing it's part to try and help these communities. The idea is to stop uninvited mining operations and "ensure meaningful community participation in projects" by mandating "free, prior, informed consent for all operations which may impact communities."
Often these rural people have little if no legal title to their land leaving them open to victimization. Regardless if these people have lived for generations on the same land, a mining lease can be granted to a mining company and without much warning, a family can be evicted. The use of force, military, and in some case, hired terrorist, can be used to forcibly evict families from their land and receiving minimal compensation and nothing for loss of their livelihood. The tussles between mining companies and local residents has caused concern. There are reports of beatings and guard dog attackes on local villagers.
The environmental and health concerns increase. Gold mining accidents and tainting of water supplies is legendary. Not only is the drinking water tainted, but it kills a viable food source. The enormous health risk to the communities directly surrounding the mine have not just immediate health issues, but long term issues as well.
Next Few Issues....The enormous environmental impact, and companies that promote change
Dirty Gold gives a whole new meaning to Dirty
If you are like me, you are unaware of the ecological damage and human toll that is extracted from gold mining. I never really gave it much thought. The statstics are overwhelming. One gold ring can leave behind 20 tons of mining waste. Not only does gold mining cause environmental devastation but it also exhibits some appalling human rights violations in terms of beatings, and imprisonment. Not to mention the unsafe conditions of gold mines in developing countries with little to no regulations. Murder can also become an undesireable effect to speaking out in a gold mine community against these practices.
What's in your Gold?
Toxic chemicals are exposed in the mining process. These can get into your drinking water, into the ground, into the air. Metal mining is one of the leading industries of toxic waste. The waste contains such toxins as lead, mercury, arsenic, selenium. Unfortunately, there is also intentional toxins used in the process of mining the gold itself. When rock is broken and gold is extracted in a technique called "Heap Leaching", cyanide is sprayed to bond the gold. Because this process of Heap Leaching is used repeatedly, it is a logical conclusion that the surrounding environment wil get contaminated. When one thinks about just a rice grain of cyanide can kill a human, imagine what it can do to fish and other animals.
"Consider, for example, the failure at the Omai gold mine in Guyana. A project of the Canadian mining corporation, Cambior, the Omai is one of the largest open-pit mines in the world. Its tailings dam failed in 1995, releasing some 3 billion cubic liters of cyanide laden tailings into the Omai River, a tributary of Guyana's largest river, the Essequibo. Following the spill, the President of Guyana declared all 51 kilometers (32 miles) of river drainage from the mine to the Atlantic Ocean - home to 23,000 people - an official "Environmental Disaster Zone." (Dirty Metals p.5)
Next Issue: A look at the Human Rights question in regards to Dirty Gold.
