A minefield of definitions muddy the waters of sustainable gold.
Industry efforts to reduce the ecological and social impact of gold mining have given rise to initiatives like Fairtrade and Fairmined gold. More recent developments see the introduction of recycled gold across many suppliers to the jewellery and electronics industries, reducing the volume of mined gold by focusing on reusing existing extracted supplies. An improvement for sure, but not always as clear as day. As an industry we can and must do better in the future.
Fairmined and Fairtrade gold sees the profits of the mining process in the hands of local mining communities and a cleaner extraction process without the damaging effects of cyanide and mercury. An additional advantage of the short supply chain is the full traceability of the gold right back to the mine. Fairtrade and Fairmined gold are literally the gold standard in sustainable gold mining. Fairtrade and Fairmined gold comes at a premium, and industry is slow to adopt the sustainable material, though a few of the big jewellery houses have more recently committed to increasing use of sustainably sourced gold. For example Chopard is committed to using 60% fairtrade gold and the remainder in recycled gold in the production of their jewellery.
With increased consumer focus on ecological and social impact of gold mining, the jewellery trade is adapting to supply nearly exclusively recycled gold. The connotation is that of eco-friendly recycling of waste materials, just as in recycled plastics and paper. However the comparison is not accurate according to the Alliance for Responsible Mining (Arm).
In its narrowest definition the only waste gold is the films and coatings used in the electronics industry known as e-waste. They constitute minute amounts of printed films and coatings that are difficult and expensive to recover. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that currently only 20% of e-waste is formally recycled. But new sources are coming online all the time. For example this year the UK’s Royal Mint will be opening a new recycling facility in Wales, which will be able to process 4000 tonnes of e-waste from printed circuit boards annually. Royal Mint will be calling it “recovered” gold as they feel that most accurately reflects what they do in their precious metals recovery plant.
E-waste only represents a tiny percentage of the world’s recycled gold. The majority of recycled gold comes from old jewellery that is refined and circulated back into the jewellery trade and electronics industry. Demand for recycled gold is increasing as legitimate users are keen to reduce the environmental impact of mining. With the gold price at an all time high, the industry is seeing a large increase in scrapped gold - jewellery turned in for economic purposes. Although many countries have some tracing in place for anti-money laundering purposes, there is little verification of the origin of the jewellery - opening the gateway for materials from troubled areas to enter the refining process. In addition the recycled gold does not take into account the carbon footprint of the original materials, leading some to call recycled metals a green washing of the material.
In an attempt to bring more transparency to the consumer in terms of the real impact of the different gold sources, ARM advocates a change in definition from recycled gold to reprocessed gold. This would bring the term recycled gold in line with international law (most countries only allow the term recycled to be used for reprocessed waste material) and clarify the positive and negative impact of the material vis-a-vis the consumer.
It mightn’t be an industry-disrupting change, but certainly a welcome one, providing consumer transparency which is important in an industry that relies on trusting relationships between suppliers and consumers.
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