Thousands of people around the world (try to) make a living by producing gold in the mountains, rivers and other areas where the valuable mineral has been found. Many of them do this in Colombia, a country which is very rich in minerals. Larger companies of course produce the majority of the gold, but there are also many so-called artesanal miners. Some of them are formal small businesses mostly organized through local assocations. They have the land & exploration rights and they had some form of trades training, even though they still mostly work under very unsafe circumstances. Then there are informal miners who might have land-rights but seldom have the required training. The last group are unfortunately illegal miners, without land rights and without permits. And probably none of them have any form of training. Organized crime sometimes finances their exploration especially when they do their illegal work in protected natural forest areas. The negative impact they have on the eco-systems is potentially devastating because of the frequent use of mercury and other dangerous chemicals.
The good news is that there are ways to avoid the use of mercury. In some areas of northern Colombia and in Suriname local miners have recently experimented with the use of plants which absorb mercury and in other parts of the world such as Senegal appropriate technology has been developed for reasonably cheap and effective alternatives to separate the gold from the rocks. However, none of these methods have proven to be "universal" yet. More research will be needed.
Gold mining is of crucial importance for hundreds of thousands of families in mostly small rural communities for their income generation. If we can find ways to facilitate heir work in a "green way", in a way that does not so badly impact their natural environment and their community's public health, we will have made their way of life more sustainable and with more dignity.
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