Global Mercury Program: Mined Without Mercury Training

Pure Earth trains artisanal and small-scale gold miners in safe and profitable mercury-free mining techniques.

Pure Earth trains artisanal and small-scale gold miners in safe and profitable mercury-free mining techniques to reduce their exposure to mercury and minimize mercury released into the environment. Implementing mercury-free approaches has been shown to increase gold recovery rates by as much as 30%.

About Our Work

Pure Earth trains miners to go mercury-free, to safeguard their livelihoods and enable them to work safely while protecting their families and environment. To date, Pure Earth has trained over 1500 miners to go mercury-free.

Pure Earth is working to help create awareness and demand for mercury-free gold and connect jewelers and others in this industry to mercury-free miners. Our efforts include working with the international jewelry industry to find a mine-to-market solution, and supporting women mining cooperatives in Indonesia, and connecting them with local jewelers who agree to buy their mercury-free gold at a premium.

+ Enlarge

Spotlight on Pure Earth Peru’s Mining Women’s Network

As women are the key to change in many communities, Pure Earth Peru is supporting an initiative to increase female participation in the mining sector and promote equal rights, opportunities, and benefits for both men and women to help them pursue sustainable livelihoods in mining.

Click here to view a proposal that will enable Pure Earth to expand our work with the Women’s Network of Madre de Dios.

Pure Earth-Trained Miners Are First To Achieve Fairmined Certification In The Peruvian Amazon

Led by mining cooperative president Vilma Contreras (pictured above), four artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) communities trained by Pure Earth are the first to achieve Fairmined certification in the Peruvian Amazon. Their success demonstrates that responsible mining without mercury can be done in the remote rainforest while safeguarding health and ecosystems, and it paves the way for other miners to follow in their footsteps.

The certification verifies that the miners are producing gold according to Fairmined standards, giving them access to higher prices on the international market, and peace of mind to conscious consumers. The achievement is a dream come true for Contreras, who dreamed of producing ecological goal “because the environment is everyone’s responsibility.”

This project is supported by global jewelry company Brilliant Earth, and developed by Pure Earth in collaboration with the Alliance for Responsible Mining.