|
Corporate Social Responsibility
News
2.11.2004 ET
|
CSR News from:
|
|
|
News Category:
|
|
New U.S. Consumer Campaign Targets One of the World's Dirtiest Industries: Gold Mining
Consumer campaign targets the $16 billion dollar U.S. gold jewelry market
(CSRwire) WASHINGTON, DC - Earthworks/ Mineral Policy Center and Oxfam America
today announced the launch of "No Dirty Gold," a consumer campaign intended
to shake up the gold industry and change the way gold is mined, bought and
sold. The two organizations have targeted the U.S. gold jewelry market
for the major consumer campaign, because gold mining is arguably the
dirtiest industry operating in the U.S. and in many parts of the world.
"Right now, purchasers of gold jewelry and high-tech products have no
alternative but to buy products that contain dirty gold," said Keith
Slack, Senior Policy Advisor with Oxfam America. Adds Payal Sampat,
International Campaign Director with Earthworks, "We're asking consumers
to consider the real cost of gold and we're enlisting their help to put an
end to mining practices that endanger people and ecosystems."
Gold mining is being targeted as an industry ripe for reform through
consumer pressure because of the extensively documented human and
environmental costs of gold mining. The production of a single 18 Karat
gold ring weighing less than an ounce generates at least 20 tons of mine
waste. Metals mining employs less than one-tenth of one percent of the
global workforce but consumes 7 to 10 percent of the world's energy.
Additionally, Earthworks and Oxfam are releasing a report today, called
"Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities and the Environment," which details the
massive pollution and, in many cases, human rights abuses that have become
hallmarks of gold and metals mining in countries such as Peru, Indonesia,
Ghana and in parts of the United States. The report and a fact sheet on
gold mining can be downloaded from www.nodirtygold.org.
"Our people have suffered beatings, imprisonment, and murder for standing
up for our community rights against multinational mining companies," said
Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, a mining activist from the Tarkwa district of
Ghana where 30,000 people were displaced by gold mining operations between
1990 and 1998. "We want buyers of gold to support our rights and demand
that mining companies adhere to higher ethical standards."
For more information, please contact Adrienne Smith at 617-728-2406 or
visit www.nodirtygold.org.
|
|
