Hi Richard
too bad you got caught out there.
I avoided being interviewed for a TV programme on gold mining while
working for BGS in Ecuador back in the early 1990's.
I explained to the programme maker that this was because I would have
no editorial control on the interview.
The programme maker was an "independent" who would sell his work to the
TV stations.
He HAD been in Ecuador to film rare parrots in Podocarpus National Park
but when he couldn't find any decided to divert his attention to the
destruction of the environment by gold mining !!!
He later visited Nambija - an artisanal gold camp par excellence and,
guess what - it was full of his rare parrots attracted by the available
food !!!
Others beware of smiling TV presenters bearing cameras and microphones
!!!
All the best - Dick-J.
Richard A. Jemielita
Consulting Geologist - Mineral Exploration
77 Marlborough Avenue
Glasgow G11 7BT
SCOTLAND
UNITED KINGDOM
www.rjemielita.com
email: [log in to unmask]
Tel. +44 (0) 141 357-5535
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Herrington <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 9:26
Subject: Re: [GEO-MINERALISATION] The Real Price of Gold - Channel 4 TV
programme 27 June
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
________________________________
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
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Geo-mineralisation is administered by the Mineral Deposits Studies
Group (UK)
(www.mdsg.or.uk)
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Geo-mineralisation is administered by the Mineral Deposits Studies Group (UK)
(www.mdsg.or.uk)
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