No Dirty Gold

What is 'Dirty Gold'?

'No Dirty Gold' is a campaign launched by Earthworks and Oxfam America on 11 February 2004 to change the way gold is mined, bought, and sold. Gold mining is one of the dirtiest industries, polluting and ruining the environment as well as exploiting natives in third world countries. Of all of the gold mined, 80% is used in jewelry, and 30% of that is used by consumers in the United States. Though Silver mining also uses similar chemicals in the mining process, only 19% is used in jewelry. The bulk of Silver is used in industry and photography (69%). Gold mining is associated in developing countries with protests, human rights abuses and imprisonment, and environmental devastation. The production of an 18Kt gold ring, weighing less than an ounce (< 0.0625 pound), generates at least 20 tons (40,000 pounds) of mine waste. Metals mining employs <0.001% (less than one-tenth of one per cent) of the global workforce, but consumes 7-10% of the world's energy. For examples of mining problems at gold mines, see No Dirty Gold:Golden Rules Report.

Gold is usually found in quartz. The metal-bearing rock is crushed and then the metal is separated from the rock by water and arsenic or mercury. Gold Processing: after the metal-containing rock is finely ground, a cyanide solution is leached over the ground rock, and then separated from the rock-cyanide 'picks up' the gold. Zinc is added to the solution, so the cyanide-zinc combination pulls out any zinc as well as the gold. Zinc is removed with sulfuric acid, leaving a gold sludge, which is then smelted into an ingot that is shipped to a metal refinery for final processing. Smelting uses very high temperatures to release impurities from the gold which results in air pollution: acid rain and smog; lead, arsenic, cadmium, zinc are released into the air. Smelting burns huge amounts of fuel which results in increased greenhouse gases. See No Dirty Gold for more information.

Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Helzberg, J.C. Penny, QVC, Zale Corp., and WalMart have signed the No Dirty Gold Pledge among many other retailers. See No Dirty Gold:Take Action to make the pledge yourself.

For these reasons, I do not use gold in my jewelry.