Figure of the month: 2013

When Guya Merkle took over the family business with a focus on jewellery design and wholesale in 2007, she became interested in the origin of the gold used to make jewellery. When she visited a small gold mining village in Peru, she saw first hand the often inhumane and harmful conditions of so-called “Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining” (ASGM). As a consequence, she quickly decided to use only fairly and sustainably produced gold for her own jewellery production.

Up to 130 million people work in ASGM.

The Earthbeat Foundation, founded by Merkle in 2013, focuses on improving the living and working conditions of all people employed in the process chain of small-scale gold mining. According to the foundation, there are 25 to 30 million people directly involved, and as many as around 100 million indirectly. About 20 per cent of the annual gold supply is provided through ASGM. Working conditions are much worse than in industrial gold mining. The Earthbeat Foundation is not only committed to fair as well as climate- and environmentally friendly gold production on site, but has also set the goal of sensitising gold jewellery buyers in industrialised countries and increasing demand for jewellery crafted under fair labour conditions.

Heartbeat Honey project: It doesn’t always have to be gold

Supported by crowdfunding, the Earthbeat Foundation has launched a project that offers gold miners in Uganda a sustainable alternative livelihood: beekeeping. The idea came from African gold miners themselves, and their retraining as beekeepers is made possible by the money raised. In times when the price of honey is steadily rising and the first retail food chains are reporting supply shortages of the “liquid gold”, the fair production of honey might well develop into a promising source of income.