Gold has captivated humanity for millennia, symbolizing wealth, love and energy. But, behind its shimmer lies a darkish environmental legacy. Throughout greater than 70 nations, over 10 to fifteen million artisanal and small-scale miners, together with an estimated 4 to five million ladies and youngsters, depend on mercury to extract gold from ore, based on the United Nations Surroundings Programme (UNEP). This technique, generally known as amalgamation, entails mixing mercury with crushed ore to type an alloy that’s later heated, releasing mercury vapor and abandoning gold. The method is easy and efficient, however the penalties are devastating.
The World Well being Group (WHO) classifies mercury as one of many prime ten chemical substances of main public well being concern. As soon as launched into the atmosphere, it transforms into methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin that contaminates rivers and fish, accumulating up the meals chain. In accordance with UNEP’s World Mercury Evaluation, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the largest supply of mercury air pollution worldwide, contributing roughly 38 % of whole human-caused mercury emissions every year.
Designer Delphine Leymarie, co-founder of Reciprocity Jewels, underscored the dimensions: “The artisanal and small-scale gold sector releases round 2,200 tonnes of mercury yearly—practically 37 % of human-generated emissions—but it produces solely about 12 to fifteen % of the world’s main gold. The ripple impact is gigantic.”
In some areas, contamination has reached alarming ranges. A 2025 research by Pure Earth in Ghana discovered that soil samples close to artisanal mining communities contained mercury concentrations exceeding world security thresholds by greater than 100 occasions. In Peru’s Madre de Dios area, the Artisanal Gold Council estimates that 181 tons of mercury are launched yearly.
“Mercury doesn’t keep the place it’s used—it travels,” mentioned France Armando Cabanillas Vásquez, native coordinator for Pure Earth in Madre de Dios. “It evaporates, strikes by way of the soil, and settles in rivers, affecting your complete Amazon ecosystem. Fish ingest contaminated sediments, bigger fish eat these smaller fish, and native communities—a lot of them Indigenous—eat these fish as their main meals supply. They might reside removed from mining areas, however are nonetheless essentially the most affected.”
Leymarie described mercury as “deadly in its subtlety—a silent killer that may take years to disclose its irreversible results.” She added, “In lots of camps, miners burn mercury amalgam over open flames, typically inside their houses. Each breath carries a neurotoxin that lingers of their our bodies and in ours, as a result of contamination travels on currents and winds.”
The worldwide framework for change
Recognizing the pressing want to handle mercury air pollution, the worldwide group adopted the Minamata Conference on Mercury, which took impact in 2017. The treaty, named after the Japanese metropolis devastated by mercury poisoning within the mid-Twentieth century, requires member states to develop Nationwide Motion Plans (NAPs) to scale back and, the place potential, remove mercury use in ASGM.
As of 2025, greater than 60 nations have submitted or are creating these plans, which deal with selling mercury-free strategies, formalizing the artisanal sector and enhancing working situations for miners. But, progress stays uneven. Many small-scale miners function informally, with out entry to coaching or capital, and in distant areas past the attain of regulation.
Alfonso Rodríguez, technical director at Pure Earth defined that Pure Earth’s work focuses on areas resembling Madre de Dios (Peru), Antioquia and Chocó (Colombia), Ashanti (Ghana), and Java Island (Indonesia), areas the place mercury contamination is deeply entrenched and tied to financial survival. “Mercury use in gold mining isn’t a localized downside; it’s a world one,” he mentioned. “Unlawful commerce and quick-profit gold manufacturing make it a transnational problem that no single nation can clear up in isolation.”
Echoing this, Dani Cutler, a accountable sourcing advocate and advertising and marketing supervisor for Hoover & Sturdy, famous, “Mercury is definitely accessible, extraordinarily transportable and cheap. It’s getting used for gold mining all through the Amazon rainforest, the place it leaches into waterways—beginning with the Amazon River and increasing into our oceans. Not solely is mercury carried with the present, it’s additionally ingested by small fish and turns into stronger because it travels up the meals chain.”
Cabanillas added that the Amazon’s biodiversity makes the disaster uniquely world. “The wealth of the Amazon belongs to everybody—it’s the heritage of your complete world,” she mentioned. “When mercury pollutes its waters and kills its fish, it doesn’t solely hurt Peruvians or Brazilians. It’s a world loss, for humanity and for nature.”
Mercury-free mining: a viable different
Regardless of these challenges, progress is accelerating. Revolutionary applied sciences and worldwide partnerships are demonstrating that mercury-free gold mining is just not solely possible however economically advantageous. Pure Earth, by way of its Mined With out Mercury program, has skilled over 1,500 miners in safer extraction strategies that improve restoration charges by as much as 30 % in comparison with conventional mercury-based processes. These strategies embrace:
- Gravity separation, which isolates gold utilizing water and density variations.
- Flotation, which separates minerals by way of bubbles and surfactants.
- The borax technique, which replaces mercury with borax as a flux to decrease melting factors and get better gold effectively.
Equally, in 2025, the World Gold Council introduced the enlargement of mercury-free processing vegetation in partnership with native cooperatives. The UNEP World Mercury Partnership and planetGOLD, a World Surroundings Facility-funded initiative, are implementing large-scale tasks in nations like Peru, Indonesia and Mongolia to transition 1000’s of miners towards sustainable strategies.
Desirée Binternagel, CEO of Fairever, defined that these alternate options exist already however stay financially out of attain for many miners. “A single shaking desk setup can value round 10,000 U.S. {dollars}—and that’s an unattainable sum for somebody residing from one gold sale to the subsequent,” she mentioned. “The clear applied sciences are there, however entry is the true problem. That’s the place honest provide chains are available in. When accountable patrons commit to buying mercury-free gold, miners lastly have the boldness and means to make that funding.”
Cabanillas confirmed this on the bottom in Peru. “In Madre de Dios, we’ve seen shaking tables show to be probably the greatest cost-benefit choices,” she defined. “However it’s necessary to notice that these utilizing these mercury-free strategies are formal miners—these working legally. Unlawful miners, who function with out permits, typically comply with the worst environmental practices. For change to unfold, we’d like stronger incentives and native markets that reward clear gold.”
Cutler added that vibrating desk and sluice techniques stay sensible for small-scale miners: “They’ve been round for over a century, value anyplace from a number of hundred to some thousand {dollars}, and might get better gold safely,” she mentioned, stressing that coaching and honest market entry are important.
Leymarie added that her personal collaborations present the impression. “In Peru, our Reciprocity Jewels × Pure Earth × AMATAF partnership helped miners transition from mercury to shaking-table extraction, reforest degraded land and achieve Fairmined certification. It’s proof that moral gold can transfer from idea to actuality—from the Amazon riverbank to a completed jewel.”.
These improvements show that sustainability and profitability can align. Along with well being and environmental advantages, mercury-free mining typically will increase gold yield and earnings stability for miners.
The posh business’s function within the transition
The jewellery and luxurious sectors have turn out to be pivotal gamers within the struggle to remove mercury from gold mining. As shoppers demand higher transparency and traceability, manufacturers are rethinking their sourcing methods.
Certification packages resembling Fairmined, Fairtrade Gold and RJC’s Chain of Custody Customary be certain that gold is extracted underneath protected, environmentally accountable situations. These techniques not solely confirm the absence of mercury use but in addition create monetary incentives for miners who undertake clear practices.
This November, these efforts will take heart stage on the Pure Earth Pure Gold Public sale in New York Metropolis. The occasion will characteristic actress and activist Nathalie Kelley, who has designed a one-of-a-kind necklace crafted in 18k mercury-free Fairmined gold from AMATAF, a women-led cooperative of artisanal miners in Madre de Dios. Of Quechua descent, Kelley has emerged as some of the seen advocates connecting sustainability with cultural identification. Her piece, designed in collaboration with Peruvian jeweler Andrea José, includes a jaguar pendant adorned with an Umba sapphire and recycled yellow sapphires, symbolizing the Amazonian dawn. The jaguar, a sacred emblem of the rainforest, represents nature’s power and resilience.
“Jewellery tells a narrative, and I needed this piece to inform one among hope,” Kelley mentioned. “Gold doesn’t have to return on the expense of poisoned rivers and misplaced forests. By supporting miners who’re main the best way with mercury-free practices, we will rework the business—and provides folks an opportunity to put on jewellery that displays their values.”
The 2025 public sale, open by way of November 3, marks the primary time that every one taking part items are made fully from 100% mercury-free, Fairmined-certified gold provided by Pure Earth’s companion miners. Funds raised will assist coaching and reforestation tasks in Peru, Ghana and Indonesia, together with the planting of 10,000 native timber in beforehand mined land.
Limitations to progress
Regardless of rising momentum, the highway to mercury elimination stays advanced. The World Mercury Partnership identifies 5 main limitations: informality, value, enforcement, training and market linkage. Many artisanal miners work exterior formal constructions, lack financing for brand new gear, and face restricted entry to technical assist.
Mercury itself stays low cost and extensively out there. Regardless of worldwide commerce restrictions, unlawful mercury trafficking continues. A 2025 Guardian report estimated that 140,000 hectares of the Peruvian Amazon have been deforested attributable to unlawful gold mining, a lot of it mercury-dependent. The Week equally reported in 2025 that illicit mercury flows from Asia and Latin America proceed to “poison the Amazon,” undermining world efforts to curb the commerce.
“Eliminating mercury from gold mining isn’t a query of expertise—it’s a query of entry and incentives,” mentioned Binternagel. “The clear alternate options exist already, however most small-scale miners merely can’t afford them. What’s wanted is world cooperation that connects funding with honest markets so miners who make the swap know their mercury-free gold shall be valued and purchased.”
Cabanillas agreed, urging governments to take a extra lively function. “Peru has ratified the Minamata Conference however has not but carried out actual incentives for clear applied sciences,” she mentioned. “If miners might promote mercury-free gold domestically at a better value, we’d see a lot quicker adoption. Proper now, many miners turn out to be discouraged as a result of there’s no financial reward for doing the fitting factor.”
Addressing these limitations requires coordinated world motion: regulating provide chains, increasing entry to mercury-free expertise and making certain that miners who make the transition can entry honest markets for his or her gold.
Towards a mercury-free Future
The shift towards mercury-free gold mining represents a uncommon convergence of environmental science, human rights and luxurious tradition. Within the subsequent 5 years, initiatives like planetGOLD goal to formalize tens of 1000’s of miners and cut back mercury emissions by over 500 tons, based on UNEP projections. Technological improvements, from distant sensing to blockchain-based traceability, will make it simpler to watch compliance and reward moral manufacturing.
Rodríguez believes the subsequent section of success shall be measured “nation by nation, case by case,” by way of particular rules and sensible examples. He factors to Pure Earth’s collaborations in Colombia, Brazil and Peru as indicators that momentum is constructing. “We’ve moved from consciousness to motion,” he mentioned. “What’s necessary now’s sustained assist—for miners, for communities, and for native governments—to make mercury-free gold the usual, not the exception.”
Binternagel envisions an identical final result: “We’ll know we’ve succeeded when clear gold turns into the financial norm quite than the moral exception,” she mentioned. “In my imaginative and prescient of the longer term, nobody will even have to ask the place their gold comes from, as a result of it will likely be commonplace that it’s mined responsibly, by folks working in protected situations and with respect for the atmosphere.”
Cabanillas provided a hopeful reminder from Madre de Dios: “We have already got sufficient damaging tales about mercury. Now it’s time to share tales of progress—miners who’re reforesting their land, cleansing their rivers and selecting to work with out mercury. Shoppers may also help by sharing these tales and supporting accountable gold. Change is feasible, and there’s nonetheless time.
For the jewellery business and its collectors, this transformation presents a strong alternative for storytelling rooted in transparency and impression. When a gold pendant or marriage ceremony band carries the reassurance that it was mined with out mercury, it turns into advocacy.
