More than 100 million people worldwide depend on gold mining for their livelihood. This category explains how gold is mined in small and large mines, what social and environmental impact gold mining has – and what sets responsible mining practices apart from harmful ones on the ground.
In the savanna of Senegal’s far southeast, the Sabodala-Massawa gold mine produced 273,533 ounces of gold in 2025 – more than any other mine in
High in Peru’s Andes, at around 4,700 meters, the miners of Oro Puno wash gold out of the gravel of ancient glaciers – with water
At around 4,700 meters in Peru’s Andes, where alpaca herding was the traditional way to make a living, ten cooperatives mine gold together as CECOMSAP.
In the green hills of Huila, Colombia, coffee farmers go underground to mine gold – under the Fairmined Standard, every year since 2014. Their cooperative
Gold mining supports more than 100 million people – and in parts of the world it also runs on child labor, displacement and armed violence.
For every gram of gold, industrial mining moves around three tonnes of rock – some 18 tonnes for a single wedding ring. Gold is also
Oro Verde, Spanish for “green gold,” was a community program of Afro-Colombian miners in the rainforest of Chocó, founded in 2000. They recovered gold and
Industrial gold mining moves around three tonnes of rock for every gram of gold it produces – roughly 18 tonnes for a single wedding ring.
Gold mining is two industries that happen to share a name. One employs around a million people and produces roughly 85 % of the world’s
Around 100 million people worldwide live off artisanal and small-scale gold mining.1 That’s 90 to 95 % of every job in gold mining – from
