I’m in Uganda with a group of friends,
visiting some projects that relate to CRED partners, and doing various bits of
partner support work as we go round.
Today we journeyed from Kampala eastwards,
to an area about 8 miles from the Kenyan border, where small-scale artisanal
gold mining takes place, and where CRED has been involved in helping install
and train up the miners in how to use some technology that, when the full suite
of components is in place, will enable the miners to eliminate the use of
mercury from the gold mining process.
A bit of background: until now, mercury has
been used as a key element in the processing of the gold, as it helps to
amalgamate the tiny pieces of the precious metal into a larger, sellable,
nugget. However the toxicity of the mercury, and the use of local water sources
as part of the panning and washing process, is not a good mix, and there has
been increasing concern about the amount of mercury that is being washed into
local streams, rivers, and farming land, which in turn leads to risk of
injestion of the element by those living downstream as they collect water, grow
their crops, do their washing etc.
And of course it is also a health hazard to
those miners who have to handle the toxic substance, especially when they are
pregnant.
So, it is no surprise that the thought of
being able to process gold in a mercury-free way is so appealing, and today we found
out more about the technology enabling this to happen, and also met with some
of the miners who are now using it.
The equipment that they use is a Gold
Kacha, two Mastas, and in the next few weeks will come the final bits of
equipment: a Konka and a Smelter. The Kacha, which looks a toploader washing
machine with a ribbed inside, catches the gold working on the principle of
centrifugal force. The Masta, a fine mat that sits under the Kacha, catches any
gold that escapes the Kacha. The Konka, a Z-shaped set of filtering mats,
catches any gold that escapes the Masta. And the Smelter joins all the bits of
gold together.
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| Gold kacha in action: photo by Annie Sanderson |
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According to the miners, they are now
getting 95% of the gold from the mined ore, compared to approx. 35% recovery
beforehand – so a massive increase in how much gold they can take to market.
And because it takes a day to process with the Kacha etc what before would have
taken a week to pan, the miners can get even more increased outcome for their
efforts. Brilliant! Or as one miner called it – a Wonder Machine!!
Simon is one of the miners we met today and
is the third generation of independent miners in his family; before that there
was mining but it was linked to working for a colonial master. He and his wife
Betty have seven children ages 6 yrs through to 20 yrs, all of whom go to, or
have gone to school.
Simon and Betty are both miners, and they
are part of the Sinyanyonji Artisan Miners Alliance (SAMA), which is a
cooperative of miners who work together and who house the Kacha etc. There are
other cooperatives who use the Kacha, but they travel across to use it, as it
doesn’t make economic sense to have lots of Kachas which would act as a
disincentive to joint working and economy of scale.
Simon was delighted to tell me how SAMA (of
which he is the chairperson) have recently gained Fairtrade certification, and
so are now the proud producers of Fairtrade certified Gold. This has required
implementation of various policies (child labour, gender equality etc), setting
up a management structure within the cooperative and improved record-keeping
amongst other things, and the miners are looking forward to the day when they
can sell some of their gold on the fairtrade market.
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| Gold! Photo by Annie Sanderson |
Unfortunately, SAMA haven’t been able to do
this yet, due to the quantity of gold that the fairtrade buyer would want as
minimum, and the issue of cash-flow for the miners until that quantity has been
reached. But plans are afoot to try and achieve this, and I pray that it will
be able to happen soon.
Simon was telling me that when the miners
sell the gold on the open market, to middle-men who come to the area, they get
100,000 UGX per gram. If they were to go to Kampala to sell it, still just to
regular buyers, not FT buyers, they would get 135,000UGX per gram, but that
involves long bus rides (6-7hours), missing at least a day’s work, and all the
associated costs; so not really worth the time and effort.
If they were to sell the FT gold to
fairtrade buyers, they would get 95% of the international market price for
gold. At the moment they are getting about 40% of the international market
price – so you can see that the benefits of being able to make that leap are
huge.
It was great to be able to go and see the
miners today, to hear their enthusiasm for the Kacha etc, and to listen as they
talked about their dreams for the future. But it was also frustrating to think
that despite having got so far with regard to the fairtrade side of things,
they still aren’t able to really reap the benefits. Oh that things will change
soon for them.
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| SAMA and the team: photo by Annie Sanderson |
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