Dear all
I put my hands up as I think I shall appear on the programme, I was contacted on the back of the little book on gold that the NHM published a while back. I was interviewed about it and tried (maybe unsuccessfully- they haven't shown me the version of the interview to be broadcast) to get them to put some perspective into the programme. I pointed out the difficulties of tracing high street gold to source and indicating as Gawen says how little gold is actually sourced from artisinals. I get the impression tht the programme is aimed at bashing the low-cost end of the high-street stores, a kind of Gap/Primark child labour expose although there is likely to be some comments about the 'toxic waste' end of the mining story and the wish to apply something like the Kimberley Process to gold which of course is highly problematic given the refining story.
Let's see but I may have to suffer the slings and arrows along with the others involved!
Richard Herrington
Department of Mineralogy
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD
UK
Tel: +44(0)207 942 5528
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From: The Mineral Deposits Studies Group listserver on behalf of Jenkin, Gawen R.T. (Dr.)
Sent: Thu 23/06/2011 21:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Real Price of Gold - Channel 4 TV programme 27 June
Hmm, this forthcoming documentary might be something to raise your blood pressure a bit.
"Dispatches challenges the British gold jewellery industry to come clean about where the gold in their jewellery comes from. Businesswoman Deirdre Bounds, who ran a successful ethical travel company, reveals what's wrong with the industry and goes on the road to present her unique take on how things could be done very differently.
Secretly filming at Britain's biggest high street jewellery chains, Bounds exposes shop assistants giving vastly misleading information about where the gold in their jewellery is mined. Then, unable to get a straight answer from the stores, Bounds travels to the mines where some gold is sourced.
In Senegal, she meets a child miner and reveals his hazardous daily existence at an illegal mine. She also looks at allegations that a large-scale industrial mine in Honduras has caused hair loss and rashes in the local population.
Shocked by what she's seen and the lack of traceability in the supply-chain, Bounds sets out to find how things could be done better.
In her search to find an alternative, she explores newly-launched Fairtrade and Fairmined gold and also how recycling old gold could offer an answer.
Going undercover, she finds one of Britain's largest gold manufacturers [sic] not living up to their pledge to support ethical alternatives. And she asks the British public to back her campaign to clean up the British jewellery industry."
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-94/episode-1
Available on the web after the programme has been broadcast (8 pm 27 June).
It looks to be tarring the whole industry with the same big brush. Maybe someone would like to pull together some less misleading information about the industry to put out there in response to this?
Here's a start: Clearly no-one condones the use of child labour in any industry across the world, but according to BGS World Mineral Production Data 2005-2009 Honduras and Senegal together accounted for 0.3% of global gold production in 2009, so the examples given are hardly representative of the global mining industry.
All the best,
Gawen
Chair, Mineral Deposits Studies Group
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Geo-mineralisation is administered by the Mineral Deposits Studies Group (UK)
(www.mdsg.or.uk)
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