Priceless heirlooms, expressions of love, symbols of prosperity, even the minerals used to produce our everyday products—society values gold for many reasons. But what is the true price of gold?
Throughout world history, gold has been used as a measure of wealth—whether that is a symbol of prosperity, or an actual means of determining the value of currency.
With Valentine’s Day recently behind us, the consumption of gold drastically increased, as a way of expressing love and affection.
But understanding the true cost of gold—beyond its market value or price tag—requires looking at the devastating environmental and human costs that result from its production.
First, there are the environmental impacts. According to the mining watchdog group Earthworks, the production of just one gold ring results in 20 tons of waste. In order to extract the gold, toxins such as sulfuric acid, arsenic, and copper must be drained from the ore when it is exposed to air, and often these toxins end up in waterways surrounding the mine.
The next stage in making that gold ring is the process of roasting ore, which causes mercury to be released into the atmosphere. Then, the ore is doused in cyanide in order to separate the gold from the ore.
Despite the contested environmental impacts of cyanide, its use allows mining companies to use lower-grade ore, of which more is required to produce that one ring. This causes greater digging and increased tailings with higher concentrations of chemicals.
In the Yanacocha mine in Cajmarca, Peru, the presence of this chemical in the local water supply has been linked to rising levels of gastrointestinal cancers and wide-spread trout die-offs in the region.
But what about the stimulation of developing economies that gold mining provides, in the form of jobs, manufacturing and production, and increased trade?
Mining in developing countries often results in the displacement of already-marginalized Indigenous and rural populations, along with the loss of assets, income, and security of jobs, food, and homes.
Not only are the labour rights of local workers in these mines continuously violated, they are often the target of violence and human rights abuses.
The world’s largest gold-mining company, Barrick Gold, is currently embroiled in a court case regarding its Tanzanian mines, where workers are frequently shot at with live ammunition, according to MiningWatch Canada.
The victims of these crimes often have no remedies to turn to in the aftermath, due to the power imbalance between foreign corporations and local governments.
Economic benefits to foreign direct investment in mining for export are also highly contested, as studies have shown that countries with higher levels of primary-resource extraction by foreign companies tend to get stuck in a static comparative advantage, with an inability to move into higher levels of manufacturing and production.
This is due to the fact that innovation is stifled, with resources being directed into the export-led industry, with little evidence of backward-linkages of money, technology, or human capital.
If you are interested in learning more about the environmental, economic, and social impacts of mining both within Canada and around the world, join us at the next Canadian Mining Awareness meeting, or check out Canadian Mining Awareness on Facebook.