Thursday, October 12, 2006

Clean gold?

When we were preparing to get married during 1991, it was during the last days of South Africa's apartheid system. I managed to buy a wedding ring from Traidcraft that had no South African gold in it - it even has a tiny Anti-Apartheid movement logo inside the ring. In a funny sort of way it not only serves as a reminder of our marriage, but also of those issues and those times.

I was interested, therefore, to see something about the No Dirty Gold campaign. One gold ring produces 20 tons of mining waste, and an estimated 10,000 people die in gold and mineral rights related conflicts every year. In many cases, there is little or no respect for human rights or the environment. A number of retailers are now signing up to support good practise, why not join them?

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