We Must Solve the Problem of Toxic Mercury

These people mine to live, and in the process, they inadvertently release more than 8,000 pounds of mercury into our environment every day, the United Nations Environment Programme estimates That said, working toward a solution may be the greatest opportunity the jewelry industry has ever had We can be the vanguard of change by publicly declaring our commitment to discovering a viable replacement for mercury and creating a clean gold supply chain, while empowering the world's artisanal gold miners.

Let's begin by acknowledging the massive global problem of toxic mercury in our gold supply chain, and sharing it with the world Second, let's take a bold stand on solving this problem by incentivizing scientists, engineers and innovators to come up with a safe, effective, affordable and scalable replacement for mercury in ASGM Finally, let's acknowledge and celebrate our artisanal gold miners, declaring our commitment to their health, well-being and prosperity, as well as the well-being of all life.

By marshaling the world's technological prowess, utilizing our massive computational power and crowd-sourcing the knowledge of 3.2 billion people online, we can discover a material or process superior to mercury for artisanal miners We can empower ASGM and their families, dramatically reduce global mercury pollution, bring about a responsible gold supply chain, and contribute to the health of all people and the global environment He is on the board of the Alliance for Responsible Mining - which created the Fairmined Gold Standard - and founded the Mercury Free Mining Challenge, a global call to engineers, scientists and academics to discover a safe, effective alternative to mercury. Source