Articles

Find links to articles on a number of topics related to ethical making.

Work by Dr Peter Oakley, Reader in Material Culture at the Royal College of Art:

• Introducing Ethical Gold

• So What’s Wrong with Gold Mining Anyway?

• Industrial Mining and Anti-Mining Campaigns

• Why is ASM Different?

• Fairtrade and Fairmined Gold

• Reflections on Ethical Gold

EARTHWORKS Reports:

• Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities and the Environment

• Golden Rules: Making the case for responsible mining

• More Shine than Substance: How RJC certification fails to create responsible jewellery

• No Dirty Gold Factsheet

• Tarnished Gold: Assessing the jewellery industry’s progress on ethical sourcing of metals

• Troubled Waters: How mine waste dumping is poisoning our oceans, rivers and lakes

Foreign Policy:

• Rough Cut: Nearly all the world’s diamonds—legal or not—pass through this one Indian city

Global Witness:

• Responsible Minerals

Human Rights Watch Reports:

• A Poisonous Mix: Child Labor, Mercury and Artisinal Gold Mining in Mali

• Behind the Shine: A Call to Action for the Jewelry Industry

• Deliberate Chaos: Ongoing Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe

• Gold’s Costly Dividend: Human Rights Impacts of Papua New Guinea’s Porgera Gold Mine

• Hear No Evil: Forced Labor and Corporate Responsibility in Eritrea’s Mining Sector

• ‘How Can We Survive Here?’: The Impact of Mining on Human Rights in Karamoja, Uganda

• Out of Control: Mining, Regulatory Failure and Human Rights in India

• Precious Metal, Cheap Labor: Child Labor and Corporate Responsibility in Ghana’s Artisinal Gold Mines

• They Destroyed Everything: Mining and Human Rights in Malawi

• Toxic Toil: Child Labor and Mercury Exposure in Tanzania’s Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Philippines

• ‘What… if something went wrong?’ Hazardous Child Labour in Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Philippines

• ‘What is a House without Food?’ Mozambique’s Coal Mining Boom and Resettlements

• Whose Development? Human Rights Abuses in Sierra Leone’s Mining Boom

Levin Sources Reports:

• Better Business in the Jewellery Sector: Traceability

• ASM-Pace Global Solutions Study: the aim of this report is to summarise the scope/scale of ASM in protected areas and critical ecosystems worldwide, describe its know effects, document and study attempted solutions, and offer an initial set of recommendations

  • Part 1: How Can Jewellery Be Circular

  • Part 2: Sustainable Design is Key to Circular Jewellery

• Follow the Money: Financial Flows Linked to Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining

• Government of Ethiopia Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas (MONPNG): Gold Technical Training Manual

Macleans:

• Blood Stones: The dangerous world of Pakistan’s gem trade

National Geographic:

• The Real Price of Gold

The Economist:

• In Praise of Small Mines: A boom in artisanal mining offers lessons in development

The Jewellery Editor:

• Canadian Diamonds: A definitive guide

Time:

• Blood Diamonds