Artisanal Gold Council Blog

By advancing technology, business practices, governance and policy, the Artisanal Gold Council helps to improve the environment and health of the millions of people involved in ASGM worldwide. The three pillar approach of the AGC Mercury use, water consumption, and dust and wastewater management are the main environmental and health concerns associated with ASGM. At many artisanal gold mining sites, miners and their families are susceptible to inhaling both mercury vapour and silica dust, which can cause serious and often irreversible health problems.  Although the environmental and health issues in ASGM are of serious concern, both can easily be mitigated through education, improved processes and best practices A ball mill with wet processing keeps silica dust down and helps to recycle water used. To alleviate health hazards, the AGC: ·                 Provid...

The Minamata Convention on Mercury, adopted in 2013, is a world-wide treaty aimed at protecting human health and the environment from mercury’s harmful effects. As the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector is a major anthropogenic source of mercury release and environmental pollution, a specific article targets the sector in the treaty; as per Article 7, countries that are part of the Convention and determine that ASGM and processing are “more than insignificant” in their territory shall develop a National Action Plan (NAP) to reduce, and where feasible, eliminate the use of mercury and mercury compounds in the sector. The Artisanal Gold Council (AGC) is helping countries, such as Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Gabon, Laos PDR, Mali, Peru and Senegal, to elaborate their NAP, in collaboration with the national governments, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Environment (UN Environment) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (U...

✅ 10 Countries; ✅ 5 Languages; ✅ Millions of rural poor positively impacted with better health, safety and economic conditions. This February is shaping up to be one of the most influential months in AGC’s history. And we are rolling into the Spring with more momentum than ever.  

Artisanal gold miners often operate in remote areas where they work long and hard extracting and processing ore to produce small batches of gold. This gold is then sold to a local gold buyer; however, because the price of gold fluctuates daily in international markets, one of the challenges for artisanal miners in these remote areas is having access to the daily spot price of gold in order to ensure they are receiving a fair price.

Canada and Artisanal Mining Artisanal Small Scale Gold Mining (ASGM), recognized as a huge development opportunity in 70+ countries by the world's international institutions, is playing a vital role in eradicating poverty for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. It is a remarkable sector that deeply touches Canada’s history and development. Artisanal mining played a significant role in creating wealth and economic diversity in early Canadian history (~1850 - 1930), and the evolution of that sector into Canada’s modern natural resources industry tells a good part of the story of the evolution of Canadian governance systems.  

The Artisanal Gold Council works to improve the health of miners worldwide. As part of ‘ Mejorando la Pequeña Minería Artesanal de oro’  (MEJORO), our 5 year project in Peru, we are working with local miners to improve practices and reduce environmental and health impacts at processing sites. Mercury vapour and respirable silica dust exposure have previously been highlighted as key health concerns within the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) sector, and the Minamata Convention specifically targets the elimination of mercury use in the sector. Our integrated approach to improving occupational health not only seeks to raise awareness on health issues in ASGM, but also to provide practical and accessible alternatives and the necessary training and resources to assist artisanal miners in improving their work environment.  

The importance of determining gold purity   is profoundly understood by the world’s refineries and is the basis for all final gold trade. However, in the field, the actual quantity of gold in a piece of dore (raw gold with some impurities) is difficult to ascertain to anywhere near the degree used by the world’s refineries; accuracy can be off by as much as 10 or 15% in the artisanal mining sector. Purity of gold is most commonly expressed in either percentage (%), as in “five nines gold” being 99.999% gold, or in karats, as in 24 karat gold being more than 99.95% pure. Gold considered London Good Delivered is 99.5%.