A Guide To Fairmined Gold

January 23, 2022By FRANCESCA KIPPAX

As a sustainable jewellery brand, we are passionate about Fairmined Gold, proud to be a licensed brand and honoured to use it to make our jewellery.

Fairmined gold is incorporated in our jewellery through our gold plating which is sourced from the Iquira Mine, Colombia and our solid gold fine pieces mined at the La Coqueta mine, Colombia.

When you buy Fairmined gold jewellery, you are buying a piece with a story of origin from empowered miners. It really is gold to be proud of and we want to show you why.

Before we get into the details, here are a few facts about Fairmined gold:

Fairmined gold jewellery is fully traceable to the source.
It transforms mining into an active force for good, ensuring social development and environmental protection.
Mines within the scheme adhere to a strict set of rules to ensure minimum impact to the environment.

What is Fairmined Gold?

Fairmined is an assurance label that certifies gold from empowered responsible artisanal and small-scale mining organizations.

It is fully traceable and supports small-scale artisanal miners and their communities; providing fair pay, gender equality, no child labour, safe working conditions and clean water supplies.

150 million people, miners and their families depend on the mining industry to make a living.

What Are The Benefits of Using Fairmined gold?

At ANUKA, we use both Fairmined gold and 100% recycled silver to produce our jewellery.

We believe it is important to have that fine balance between limiting environmental impact and reusing precious metal waste with the use of 100% recycled silver and also supporting the livelihoods of those who are reliant on the mining sector by making with Fairmined gold.

By choosing to make with Fairmined gold, we are contributing to this positive transformation of mining communities.

The Alliance for Responsible Mining, which is behind Fairmined, also seeks to generate a safer space for female miners and a more equal working environment by increasing the economic empowerment, education and skills of the women.

You can find out more about how Fairmined empower women here.

20% of gold is produced by the artisanal and small-scale mining sector worldwide.

Fairmined Gold Environmental Impact

By supporting Fairmined, you can rest assured that there is limited to zero use of harmful chemicals such as mercury and cyanide that can be present in conventional gold mining.

The assurance label also guarantees that clean water supplies are maintained and the mine operates in a way that makes sure there is no chemical runoff into neighbouring communities. As they also only support small-scale artisanal mining operations, they are limited in scale opposed to the huge industrial mining operations.

Certified small-scale mining organizations strive to improve their practices every day, proving that positive environmental and social impact can be part of the story behind gold.

Fairmined Gold Vs. Recycled Gold

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both:

Fairmined gold has a number of environmental and social benefits. Not only does it contribute to the positive transformation of the mining sector, it can be traced back to its origin; adding emotional value to your products. However it does cost between 10 – 20% more than conventional gold and due to the small number of certified mines and their limited production compared to large-scale mines, there is limited availability.

Recycled gold on the other hand comes with the promise of a lower carbon footprint and is a widely accessible, inexpensive option. That being said, it is difficult to determine the origins of recycled gold and how it was originally mined and brought to market. What was its original impact?

To conclude, although you may believe that choosing recycled gold will help curb the demand for newly mined gold, mining simply will not stop because the demand for recycled gold rises. This is why we use both Fairmined gold and 100% recycled silver in our practice in order to strike a balance and support both sides.