Comic Relief and Fairtrade back ethical gold mining in east Africa

Hazardous and environmentally damaging small-scale mines produce 20% of world’s gold

Comic Relief and Fairtrade have joined forces with the Dutch government to back a $15m (£11m) scheme to support ethical gold mining in east Africa after a successful pilot project in Uganda.

About a fifth of the world’s gold produced every year comes from small-scale mines where millions of people work in hazardous conditions without access to modern technology. They resort to extracting and crushing ore by hand before using water and then highly toxic mercury or cyanide to separate the gold. The ad hoc process is not only harmful for the individuals involved, some of whom are children, but pollutes their local environment. It is also highly inefficient, on average extracting only 40% of the available gold.

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