Gold Mining Facts

Gold Mining, isn't a very trendy topic, compared to 101 gold facts, around the aesthetically gifted, ending their day's work with aperitifs in porticoed wine-bars adorned in... dirty gold jewelry!

Anyone for Majorica Pearls, I hear you say. No? How about the History of Rhinestones?

The personal account told by Pamela, about getting flecks of gold from a river in the South Pacific wouldn't go down too well, dining alfresco, around there...

Gold mining and diamond mining share a common denominator - mining the earth in search of a drop from the sun. To get a taste of this controversial subject, of dirty Gold, start with dirty Diamonds, and watch the movie that exposes the stain of blood DIAMONDS, staring Leonardo Dicaprio, titled - Blood Diamonds. See for yourself, if you haven't already, the history behind brand-spanking-new "dirty diamonds".

So what are the dirty gold mining facts?

In the current global economic meltdown, buying gold in the form of outright physical gold ownership, is cool enough, but for those still sitting on the fence - Hello- and would like to know more about investing in physical gold, the following facts about the gold mining industry, are shocking.

Antique jewelry investors & sensible jewelers like Tiffany& Co. who take a bold position on responsible gold mining, believe if that fresh-out-of-the-box new gold necklace is good enough to put around your neck, then you should be entitled to know what method was used to extract the gold in the process.

Got your hard hat on? We're going down and getting dirty from Here........

The ongoing operations of large scale mechanized mining that some mining companies use is destructive to both the land and to adjacent aquatic ecosystems. Ecosystems?

An ecosystem is a specific area of size in which climate, landscape, animals and plants are constantly interacting. Ecosystems sustain life. Gold-mining, specifically, open-pit mining and some of the methods used to extract the gold threaten, Ecosystems.

Now let's drives past the bling of new gold jewelry to find, there may be a sting in the brand-spanking-new-gold diamond engagement ring you've been swooning over.

Find Out About The Facts About Diamonds HERE

And consider the benefits of choosing an environmental friendlier jewelry alternative such as Antique Gold Jewelry and Natural Persian/Arabian Gulf Pearls instead?

Here are the gold-mining facts that all gold consumers should know, most do not:

➨ Did you know that 1 new gold ring generates 20 TONS of mine waste?

➨ Did you know that each ton of gold mined today costs 1 life and 12 serious injuries? (1996, Pik Botha, the South African Minister for Mineral and Energy Affairs at the time).

➨ Did you know that modern mining methods displaces whole communities?

➨ Contaminates drinking water?

➨ Destroys pristine environments?

➨ Did you know that smelters pollute the air we breathe and add 142 million tons of sulfur dioxide to the atmosphere every year - 13 percent of global emissions?

➨ Did you know that 99 percent of the children in the Peruvian town of La Oroya (where there is a smelter that produces gold bullion bars, silver, lead cadmium, zinc and copper) have severe lead poisoning and 20% of these children need urgent medical attention?

➨ Did you know that water and air pollution create other problems, forcing families to spend large amounts of money from their meagre incomes treating asthma, skin diseases and many other sicknesses.

➨ Did you know that artisanal gold mining is one of the highest sources of mercury being released into the environment in the developing world? At least, one quarter of the world’s total gold supply comes from artisanal mining.

➨ Did you know that industrial accidents from mining involving spilled chemicals can completely devastate communities like Cajamarca in Peru?

➨ Did you know that gold mining is no longer a stronger generator of jobs and thankfully is rapidly declining?

➨ Did you know that gold is a non-renewable resource and can only be taken out of the ground once? Once the gold deposits have been depleted, most of these large-scale operations typically poison thousands of hectares, leaving in its wake, a devastating landscape, rubble-strewn land drained by acid streams?

➨ Did you know that mining operations are usually set up without the consent of local communities, Indigenous people and farmers?

➨ Did you know that forced removals, physical attacks and loss of livelihoods associated with gold mining and land expropriations are serious human rights violations?

➨ Did you know that the Glamis Gold Ltd. mine proposal in California will destroy over 50 sacred sites of the Quechan Indiann nation?

➨ Did you know that even when surface land rights are clearly titled to Indigenous groups, governments often sell of the subsurface rights to mining corporations?

➨ Did you know that gold mining is a major threat to large tracts of undisturbed forest called "frontier forest"?

➨ Did you know that advanced gold mining methods are increasing pressure on governments to permit mining in otherwise unprofitable mining areas, putting even more areas under risk?

➨ Did you know that gold mining methods that involve digging-up ore generates massive amounts of waste?

➨ Did you know that one gold method involves a method call "heap leaching". This method involves dripping a cyanide solution though huge piles of ore. The solution strips away the gold and is collected and then run through an electro-chemical process to extract the gold?

➨ Did you know that 99.9% of these huge toxic heaps are waste dumps and are so large they they can reach as high as a 30 story building and take over whole mountain sides.

➨ Did you know that cyanide used in leaching gold is extremely toxic? One rice-grain size dose of cyanide can kill humans? Did you know cyanide and other chemicals used in mining pollutes rivers and water sources and kills fish other wildlife?

➨ Did you know that some miners regularly dispose of toxic waste in rivers, lakes and even oceans? Mine waste also includes byproducts such as mercury and heavy metals which work their way into the food chain and make people and animals very sick.

➨ Did you know that mining is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Rock falls, tunnel collapses, fires, heat exhaustion claim the lives of over 15,000 miners every year?

Investing in antique gold jewelry that leaves no carbon footprints makes financial sense with respect for environment.

Reference: No Dirty Gold

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