Eco-Friendly Gold 2

After knowing the benefits of recycling gold and buying recycled gold, here are some stores where you can buy eco-friendly gold.

·      ApolloRings is a man made alternative to diamonds.

·      Chicago Joinery - eco conscious wooden jewelry --really beautiful, unique, handcrafted rings.

·      Cred Jewellery specializes in fair trade gold wedding rings and diamond engagement rings that are from certified community mines. They also do a lot of custom work.

·      Leber Jeweler Inc. - The Earthwise Jewelry Collection uses 18K gold and platinum processed from reclaimed sources. Designed with environmental and fair labor concerns and hand-fabricated by expert craftspeople.

·      GreenKarat specializes in ecologically responsible jewelry. They have a large assortment of recycled gold wedding rings and do custom work as well.

·      Sumiche Jewelry Co. is the only company in the U.S. using Certified Green Gold and Platinum. Their handrafted jewelry is created from Certified Fair Trade/Eco-Gold and Platinum. All diamonds are certified Conflict Free.

·      Touch Wood Rings displays many options of wood rings which many feel are a great symbol of your ommitment to the environment and to the concept of simple living.

·      Cocoloco has many colors and shapes available of rings that made from coconut that are unique, lightweight and strong.

  

And here are some of the stores that would buy your used or unwanted gold and recycle it.

·      www.goldkit.com

·      www.goldrecyclingcentre.com

·      www.brokengold.com

·      www.recyclingsecrets.com

·      www.kmggold.com

In addition to many other websites that would buy your gold to recycle it.

            If you are still not fully convinced of the benefits of buying recycled gold and selling you old or unwanted gold to be recycled, you should take a look at this website http://www.sellgoldhq.com/ that will tell you everything about selling gold, how much you should get for your gold, and how gold is recycled.

by Fares Alshaiddi

* the websites of stores that sell eco-friendly gold are taken from http://www.greatgreenwedding.com/rings.php

Eco-Friendly Gold

Many articles in this blog were about the negative effect of gold mining and its consequences on the environment and human. However, a few of them talk about eco-friendly gold, or “green gold.” Therefore, I will talk more about eco-friendly gold on this article and its benefit on the environment and human.

So what is eco-friendly, or “green gold,” gold? It is gold that can be completely recycled or newly mined under strict environmental regulations. According to GreenKarat.com, since “mining continues at a pace of 2,500 tons a year, 80% of which is used by the jewelry industry, there is enough gold above ground (already mined) to satisfy all demands of the jewelry industry for the next 50 years. Much of it sits in bank vaults and in the form of old and unwanted jewelry.”

The benefits of recycling gold and buying recycled gold are that it reduces the activity of gold mining that in turn would reduce gold mining's harmful affects on the environment and violation of human rights. In addition, you could earn money from selling your used or unwanted gold to company that recycles gold.


By Fares Alshaiddi

Reduce deaths rate of miners

Mining is one of the world’s most hazardous professions. We can see from record, 34 mining-related deaths in the United States last year, and half of them in coal mines. In China, there were 2631 mining deaths last year. There are more than 12,000 mining deaths are reported and there are more in unreported.

I was so surprise that there were many miners’ deaths. I believe, it is the most dangerous work in the work. They do not gain lots money from companies but they have to do such the most dangerous work. It is unfair.

        Then, lot of organizations is trying to look green for their mining business. Last year, Green Mining Initiative (GMI) is a program that promotes sustainability through mining and takes advantage of new market opportunities. “It’s about finding innovative ways to minimize the waste produced by mining, transform it into environmentally friendly resources for other uses and leave behind only clean water, rehabilitated landscapes and healthy ecosystems,” says Louise Laverdure, the Director of Green Mining Research at NRCan.

This program focuses on four key area of green mining including: footprint reduction, waste management, mine closure and rehabilitation, and ecosystem risk management. And they are also promoting the use of science and technology to four issues blow:

• reduce the environmental burden of mining for the benefit of future generations;
• promote a strong, socially responsible economic performance that will help the mining sector support sustainable communities;
• support effective policy and regulation;
• develop knowledge and processes, as well as design equipment aimed at stimulating Canadian innovation expertise and export; and
• promote environmental protection and sustainable resource development in Canada and abroad.

It is such another good way of mining. It can decrease the rates of miners’ deaths. Green Mining is not popular, but there are many organizations are trying to looking mining green and protect miners. Companies need miners, and they do not want any accidents happened during their hard work, so they are looking doing green now.

1.      Marisa Brennan, “Green Mining Initiative to Reduce Mining’s Environmental Footprint” Natural Elements, NRCan's Monthly Newsletter. 07 Nov, 2010.

http://www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/com/elements/issues/47/initiative-eng.php

2.      “Green Mining Initiative” Natural Resources Canada. 07 Nov, 2010

http://www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/media/newcom/2010/201066a-eng.php

By Wei Hsueh

Green Mining Eco Machine

Non professional wildcat miners in Brazil and Peru use mercury in the process to extract gold from mud while traditional companies use cyanide.  However, both cyanide and mercury pollute the environment and posses health concerns to humans since the waste and pollutants will eventually end up in the food chain cycle.  In recent years, there is a new form of mining.  A new form that is green and more sustainable. 

A Peruvian engineer, Villachica invented a machine that produces gold and not using mercury.  It is a very eco friendly approach and cost effective for small scale mining.  Since many new policy and standards are set for lowering mercury emissions, this type of new green eco friendly mining method is welcoming.  The cylindrical machine blends mineralized dirt with pressurized air, water, and biodegradable chemicals in a circular motion that produces bubbles that rise to the surfaces and attached to fragments of gold.  While large, traditional professionalized gold mines use mainly cyanide, mercury is used by millions of wildcat miners around the world.  These wildcat miners usually work without formal permits and basic standard safety equipment, in which often put themselves at risk by exposing to high level of toxic metals.  The green mining eco machine could produce up to 95% of the gold attained by using mercury by the wildcat miners.  Villachica’s invention and his focuses on green technology is a significant step forward for opening doors to more sustainable practices in mining.

By Xi Zhong

http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Now-mine-green-gold-without-mercury!-27624-3-1.html

Some Information about “Dirty Gold”

           Gold mining is one of the most dangerous industries that threaten human rights, the environment, and wildlife. Talking about gold mining processing, Metals mining produces more toxic pollution than any other industry in the United States. It is responsible for 96% of arsenic emissions and 76% of lead emissions. Every year, US mines generate an amount of waste equivalent in weight to almost nine times the trash produced by all US cities and towns combined. In addition, according to the International Labor Organization, mining is responsible for 5% of workplace deaths each year.

Moreover, gold mining is not just affecting people in developing countries through pollution; it is also considered a source of human rights violations. According to a Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, they found that "overwhelming evidence of human rights violations occasioned by the mining activities, which were not sporadic but a well established pattern common to almost all mining communities."          Gold mines have many forms, one of the most common gold mines is the open-pit gold mines, where all the grass, trees, and every other living thing above the place to be mined is removed and the ore is blasted and scooped out. Not only do open-pit mines scar the landscape, they produce 8 to 10 times more waste than underground mining.

Some Facts about Gold Mining ·      Between 1990 and 1998, more than 30,000 people were displaced by gold mining operations in the district of Tarkwa in Ghana. ·      In 1992 in Summitville, Colorado (USA), a containment dam that held mine waste from a gold mining operation burst. The escaped toxic waste killed all life along a 25 km stretch of a nearby river. ·      120,000 tons of toxic waste spilled from the Baia Mare gold mine in Romania in 2001, contaminating the drinking water of 2.5 million people and killing 1,200 tons of fish. ·      At the Giant gold mine near Yellowknife, Canada, there are 237,000 tons of arsenic dioxide dust stored underground. The storage area is now starting to leak. Sources: NoDirtyGold.org, Greanpeace, Reuters.

         In addition, gold is now rarely found as nuggets, but rather is extracted chemically from the ore by using a cyanide leaching process. These operations usually lead to cyanide and other toxics eventually getting into the surrounding land, surface water, and groundwater. When talking about the hazard of cyanide, I should mention that an amount of it equivalent in size to a grain of rice will kill a human, and very low concentrations of cyanide in surface water will kill fish.

- Fares Alshaiddi

http://www.grinningplanet.com/2005/02-01/gold-jewelry-gold-mining-article.htm

Green Gold Mining (2)

Green gold mining is currently generating a lot of inovations with the aim of protecting the environment that has suffered in many years due to gold mines. The innovations have been largely in preenting mercury traces build up intghe environemt tahat usually causes fatal effectsto the public. A Peruvian engineer; Vilachica, has finally designed a gadget that is intended to reduce mercury emissions which have heavily poluted many rivers in the amazon (http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Now-mine-green-gold-without-mercury!-27624-3-1.html) . 

            The invented device is more suited to the small scale gold miners in the amzon who are the majority in the gold mining industry and oblivious to the envirnmental impact of the mining activities. The gadget uses no mercury and can be further used in large scale gold exploration and is very cheap and relatiavely easy to use by the small scale miners.  The device is designed to blend the mineral dirt with highly pressurised jets of air, water and other biodegradable chemicals. This produces a centrifugal motion that results in  many bubbles with the gold specs attached to surface from the rocks. The above method of gold estraction is incontrast to the more enviroenmtally unfriendly method that uses many tonnes of mercury to extract gold from the mud. These methods used by many professionals and other wildcats leave a divastated environment and in sometimes with very little gold deposits that might be considered as economically unviable.

            It is expected that, the patented device would produce up to 95% of the gold obtained through use of mercury which has been the traditional mode of mining. This would save the lives of many miners who use the mercury to exract gold ignoring their health concerns. It amounts to one of the best technologies aimed at savig the environment from eminent destrution mostly in the amazon basin before being circulated in other gold mining regions.

            With an aim of encouraging green gold minig, several companies have been forming subsidaries involving several different companies that join to put their efforts together in ensuring professional contribution in gold mining. An example of the above is the Green Planet  Group Inc (OCTCBB: GNPG) (http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/13685137-1.html).  This is a company formed by Green Mining Technologies and Earth Explorations LLC that have signed a agreement to acquire and operate their first green mining fields.

            The formation of Green Planet Group consists of a consortium of leading develoepment and research companies with numerous experience and patents in the fields of improving the planet’s soil, water and air. These companies join to introduce new mining methods by doing away with the traditional mining methods which have been credited with massive environmental pollution in many countries. The partnership is more of a research based mining exercise where different professionals that make up the company join to reduce the environmental pollution during mining of the ore, transportation and processing  of the ore to gold. On the same process, the group would develop measures to ensure that, the mines after mining have been put to more productive use instead of living desolate open mines as has been the trend for many years.

            The above group of companies have therfore initiated a viable and promising project which they hope will be bought by many other large scale gold mining companies thereby initiating a Green Gold tradition in mining of precious metals as well as generating revenue from the  sale of such technologies. Through such revolutions in the gold minig industry, the mining activities would be turned from environmental disasters to more productive , health oriented and environmentally viable activities that have both the aspects of revenue generation and environment rehabilitation. 

By Abdullah Alkhaldi 

Works cited

Bailey, Marianne. “Reducing Mercury Pollution from Gold Mining.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. May 13, 2010. http://www.epa.gov/international/toxics/asgm.html.  Retrieved on 1^st Nov. 2010.

Banton, David. “A green approach to gold mining in the Okanogan.” Seattle Daily Journal, 2008. http://www.djc.com/news/en/11202056.html Retrieved on 1^st Nov. 2010.

 

Business wire. “Green Planet Group Making Green Gold Mining a Reality.” All Business.com. January 5 2010. http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/13685137-1.html. Retrieved on 1^st Nov. 2010.

Geena, Paul. “Now, mine green gold without mercury!” Commodity online April 23, 2010.. http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Now-mine-green-gold-without-mercury!-27624-3-1.html . Retrieved on 1^st Nov. 2010.

 

Green Gold Mining (1)

Gold mining has been the cause of high environmental degradation due to the release of toxic chemicals to the environment. These toxic elements have very adverse effects to both the environment and the human health. The health effects of the above emissions can be obtained from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14538904.html).

 Several concerned efforts are however in place to ensure protection of the environment in gold mining. Mercury pollution reduction from gold mining (http://www.epa.gov/international/toxics/asgm.html) is one of the concerned projects in place today. This project has its concerns in preventing the burning of mercury- gold amalgam, which might cause serious health effects to people. This project aims at reducing the mercury emissions from the gold shops through a cheap and easily implemented technology called the Gold Mercury Capture System (MCS). This project was practically tested in the Peru and Brazilian Amazon gold mines. MCS technology is on the road to enforcement and the above governments have provided technical resources on the technology in various web pages where the concerned parties could access the full information. The gadgets are meant for trapping the mercury particles preventing them form escaping into the environment. The manuals for constructing the devices can be obtained from http://www.epa.gov/international/toxics/HgManual.pdf.  

Research on the MCS project reliability has been very positive with data collocated from the Peru gold mining sites of Masuko, Maldonado and others showed that shops using the MSC had ambient mercury vapor concentrations just slightly above the WHO mercury limits of about 20mcg/m3- 8hour. Gold shops not using the MSC technology however had very high mercury emissions of up to 20 tines higher than the former. The mercury control system has therefore proved very effective in keeping up with the Green Gold policy aimed at protecting the environment and the human health at large.

       A new approach to Green Gold mining has been commissioned recently in the Buckhorn Mountain gold mine in Okanogan near Washington DC (http://www.djc.com/news/en/11202056.html). In fact, this is a new gold mining that has been permitted in Washington in the last 15 years. The project has been critically analyzed by the involved experts and given a go ahead to operate since environmental degradation effects involved with other mines have been mitigated in this project. An example is the trend where mining companies have left large valleys open after mining. This project would use structural fill, which is a mixture of cemented sand, gravel and non-ore rock to refill the depressions created after mining. At the end, the ground would be left intact with little evidence of any mining activity.

Water would be used to suppress dust underground and on the surface and cooling the equipment at the site. This may cause the water to be contaminated with other traces of toxic metals, sulfates, and nitrogen compounds. The project’s main advantage is the ability to treat the water before releasing it to the environment. A figure of the water treatment plant is as shown below. Generally, the project would use much reduced water content than any other gold mines and the released water from the mines would be treated to comply with the international standards.

By Abdullah Alkhaldi 

Works cited

Bailey, Marianne. “Reducing Mercury Pollution from Gold Mining.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. May 13, 2010. http://www.epa.gov/international/toxics/asgm.html.  Retrieved on 1^st Nov. 2010.

Banton, David. “A green approach to gold mining in the Okanogan.” Seattle Daily Journal, 2008. http://www.djc.com/news/en/11202056.html Retrieved on 1^st Nov. 2010.

 

Business wire. “Green Planet Group Making Green Gold Mining a Reality.” All Business.com. January 5 2010. http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/13685137-1.html. Retrieved on 1^st Nov. 2010.

Geena, Paul. “Now, mine green gold without mercury!” Commodity online April 23, 2010.. http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Now-mine-green-gold-without-mercury!-27624-3-1.html . Retrieved on 1^st Nov. 2010.