All you need to know about Oro Verde....

From this (Oro Verde panned gold)...

...to this (Stacey Whale's Oro Verde cuff)

You may have noticed that Oro Verde gold is becoming more prominent in the media recently and that the name Oro Verde is becoming synonymous with feel-good green jewellery. Because of this we thought it was about time we learnt more about all things Oro Verde.

Oro Verde gold and platinum come from the Choco Bioregion which is a 87,803 hectare piece of land that spans Panama, Columbia and Ecuador. The region has a very high rainfall making it one of the most lush climates in the world and the perfect home for the 9000 species of plants, 200 types of mammal, 600 species of bird, 100 different reptiles and 120 amphibians.

Alongside all this diverse flora and fauna live a human population of approximately 3,720,000 made up of multiple multi-ethic and indigenous communities. It is these communities which own the land that the gold and platinum is found on, who mine it and who hunt, fish and farm the land. It is estimated that between 80-85% of the families in some parts of the region are artisanal miners.

So what is artisanal mining and why is it done here and not in other metal-rich places?

The Choco Bioregion is rich in natural sources of platinum and gold. The high rainfall in the area helps wash the gold and platinum from the Andes down into lower lying lands which are inhabited by the Choco peoples. It is this movement of materials via natural water sources that allows miners to find metals in the streams and rivers when panning for or alluvially mining metals.

The region is renowned for its high metal content and has already been damaged by mining pollution and the run-off of harmful chemicals from metal treatment plants. This has been going on for hundreds of years already. So why is this changing now?

The scheme being run in the region; the Green Gold Programme, is fair, sustainable and protects the existing communities rather than the outsider who has come just for the metals. The land which makes up the Choco Bioregion is owned and run by the families and communities who have owned it for generations. This is recognised through a legally binding land title.

The Choco Bioregion came to be in 1999 through an alliance between local mining families who used traditional artisanal techniques, local community leaders who were looking to protect the local communities and those who wished to stop the humanitarian and environmental impact of mining which was being seen elsewhere in the area.

It was decided that the best way forward was to generate a sustainable income through programmes which were self-managed by those who lived there. This was also true of the development which comes with a sustainable income. The region also wanted to protect the amazing eco-systems which are found no-where else in the world.

Oro Verde and the Green Gold Programme support the entire supply chain from miner through to helping develop world markets where the product can be sold. This is an on-going project and is why we are seeing more and more about the programme over time. The thing that is so special about this project though is the way that knowledge is used. Best practice and useful knowledge is disseminated to other communities and things are implemented which will help a specific area. For example, land which is no longer used for mining is replanted using crops which are endemic to the region to ensure that the rainforests survive and continue to flourish but the land is also used to bolster that sustainable income by using crops which will continue to bring in profit. Everything that the programme does complies with environmental and social criteria.

And what of the actual metals? There is a premium of 10 or 15% on the metals dependant on whether they are Fair Trade or Fair Mined. This is certified through a system which started in 2004 when the Oro Verde project began working with the Association for Responsible Mining (ARM). Other partners of the scheme include Tiffany’s, Oxfam and the Fairtrade Foundation. The premium is used to invest in the development of the land and it is the families and communities which decide how this can best be done.

So how can we help? Because of the technique used, artisanal mining could never support our industry's current demand for metals but smaller companies who are committed to the work of this type of programme should definitely look to begin using Oro Verde gold and platinum. We here at Opulent Ethics hope to soon.

For a brilliant film which follows the Mosquera family whilst they mine in the Choco Bioregion where they live click here. 

That’s all for now….