Oro Verde, Colombia: A Fair Gold Pioneer

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 platinum without mercury or cyanide, under rules their own communities helped write. Oro Verde became the first fair supply chain from artisanal miners to jewelers in Europe – and the model for the Alliance for Responsible Mining and the Fairmined Standard.

Key Insights

• Oro Verde was a community program, not a single mine. Two Afro-Colombian community councils in Tadó and Condoto founded it in 2000 with local and national partners, and by 2013 it had certified around 110 family mining units with roughly 700 miners.
• Its miners recovered gold without mercury or cyanide. They worked the rivers with the traditional batea pan, and a foam of crushed leaves helped the finest gold particles settle.
• Oro Verde delivered the first certified ecological gold and the first certified platinum from small-scale mining. Pioneering jewelers such as Jan Spille in Germany, Toby Pomeroy in the United States and Cox & Power in the United Kingdom turned it into jewelry.
• It inspired the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and the Fairmined Standard. Fairmined Ecological Gold, recovered with gravity methods only, carries Oro Verde's core idea forward today.
• The program ended around 2014, under heavy pressure from outside. Mechanized mining, extortion by armed groups and the closure of its support organization proved too much – but the model it proved is still in use.

Table of Contents

• Oro Verde at a glance
• What was Oro Verde?
• Chocó: rainforest, rivers and ancestral mining
• Backhoes and armed groups: a region under pressure
• How did Oro Verde mine gold without mercury?
• The first fair gold supply chain to Europe
• How did Oro Verde lead to ARM and Fairmined?
• Is Oro Verde still active?
• Oro Verde's legacy today
• FAQs: Oro Verde
• Key takeaways
• Further reading
• Sources

Oro Verde at a glance

What was Oro Verde?

Oro Verde was a community-led program for responsible artisanal gold mining in Colombia's Chocó region. It was not a single mine, but a network of family mining units along the rivers of two Afro-Colombian collective territories, in the municipalities of Tadó and Condoto.

The program began in 2000, when, as the World Intellectual Property Organization puts it, "Afro-Colombian miners in Chocó joined hands with social entrepreneurs and formed Corporacion Oro Verde."¹ Its founder was Catalina Cock Duque, a Colombian social policy expert and entrepreneur.¹

The partners were the community councils ASOCASAN in Tadó and COCOMACOIRO in Condoto, the local foundation Fundación Las Mojarras, the Pacific environmental research institute IIAP and the NGO Amichocó. In 2001, they formalized their alliance as Corporación Oro Verde.²

The idea was simple and, at the time, radical. Miners would follow binding social and environmental rules, have them checked independently, and sell their gold at a better price to buyers who valued exactly that. The IIAP institute carried out the first certification.²

In 2007, 194 family mining units were certified under Oro Verde's own criteria.³ After the switch to international certification, the program counted around 110 certified family mining units with roughly 700 miners in Tadó and Condoto (2013).² In 2012, 28 % of Oro Verde's certified miners were women.¹

Chocó: rainforest, rivers and ancestral mining

Chocó lies on Colombia's Pacific side and is part of the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena biodiversity hotspot, home to "some of the world's wettest rain forests".⁴ Its rivers carry gold and platinum, and Afro-Colombian families have panned them for generations. Oro Verde's miners are descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the region by the Spanish, and their mining practices have been handed down from one generation to the next.⁵

Their communities are self-governed by law. Colombia's Law 70 of 1993 recognizes the collective property of Afro-Colombian communities on the land they have long inhabited, and it makes their locally elected community councils the governing authorities of these territories.² ASOCASAN alone covers 54,517 hectares, with 21 communities and around 1,460 families.⁶

That self-governance was the backbone of Oro Verde. The councils helped define the program's criteria. According to the program's leaders, certification also strengthened the collective territory itself, through local control, monitoring and "economic and political empowerment".² The rules explicitly included gender equality, and women made up more than a quarter of the certified miners.¹

Backhoes and armed groups: a region under pressure

Oro Verde grew up in a region under enormous pressure from mechanized mining and armed conflict. The families with their pans had to compete with machines that extracted in a day what they extracted in three months – and with armed groups that took their cut from every mining operation they could reach.

Machines in the rivers

In the community of Angostura, in Tadó, the first backhoe arrived around 1986. According to a report from the community, what artisanal miners took three months to extract, a backhoe extracted in a single day.⁷ Since 2001, dredges in the San Juan and Quito river basins have mostly been run by operators from Brazil.⁸

Machines like these dig up riverbanks and forest floors on a scale no family with a pan can match. Researchers working in the Tadó area in 2015 found dredges using copper plates smeared with mercury to catch the gold.⁹ The pressure also came from inside, because machines spare people hard physical work: "We know the backhoes have done us harm, but they make our work much lighter," one resident said.⁷

Armed groups and extortion

Where that kind of money flows, armed groups follow. A 2012 study in Chocó found that armed actors could collect 1.5 million Colombian pesos a month for each backhoe at a mining site, or 15 % of its output.¹⁰ A study co-written by Oro Verde's leaders describes how gold from small-scale mechanized mining had been used to finance guerrilla and paramilitary groups.²

In Tadó, a paramilitary group known as Los Rastrojos fought the FARC guerrillas for control of the coca trade. "The armed conflict hit us hard, because this is a corridor, and whenever there was fighting our activities were suspended," Américo Mosquera, a community leader in Angostura, told the Colombian newspaper El Espectador.⁷

How serious the damage to Chocó's rivers became shows in a landmark ruling. In 2016, Colombia's Constitutional Court recognized the Atrato, one of the region's main rivers, as a legal subject with rights of its own. The reason was the damage caused by illegal gold mining.¹¹

How did Oro Verde mine gold without mercury?

Oro Verde's miners recovered gold with gravity and plant knowledge instead of chemicals. They dug gold-bearing gravel from riverbeds and banks and washed it in the batea, the traditional gold pan. Heavy gold and platinum sink to the bottom as the lighter sand is swirled away.

That matters because artisanal and small-scale gold mining is the world's largest man-made source of mercury, with 37.7 % of global anthropogenic emissions to air.¹² Most small-scale miners use mercury to capture fine gold particles. Oro Verde showed that fine gold can be caught without it. More on mercury and its effects: gold mining's environmental impact.

Leaves instead of mercury

The most remarkable part is a traditional technique of Afro-Colombian miners in Chocó. They crush the leaves of plants such as balso (Ochroma pyramidale) and malva (Hibiscus furcellatus) by hand and mix them with water into a foamy liquid, which they add to the pan.⁹

A geological study describes what happens next: the plant juice breaks the surface tension of the water and "allows precipitation of the very fine-grained gold." Heavy minerals such as gold, platinum and magnetite sink, while light minerals such as quartz and mica stay suspended and wash away.⁹

The knowledge behind it is broad. According to a 2018 report, the Oro Verde communities identified 48 plant species with this effect, among them yarumo and balso de lana. The crushed plants trap the metal in their slime and separate it from water, stones and sand.¹³

The Oro Verde rules

The program's criteria were developed in consultation with the community councils. They included:¹

• No chemicals in mining: no mercury and no cyanide.
• Limits on ecological destruction, including restricting mining in a forest to 10 % of the area.
• Topsoil set aside before mining and replaced afterward, so the land could recover.
• No work in the mines for anyone under 15, and no dangerous work for anyone under 18.
• Gender equality.

By 2007, the communities had protected 7,900 hectares of tropical forest in the Chocó this way.¹ Many of these rules later reappeared in the international standards for small-scale mining that followed – most clearly in the requirements for Fairmined Ecological Gold described below.

The first fair gold supply chain to Europe

Oro Verde did more than change how gold was mined. It created a market for it, connecting remote river communities in Chocó with jewelers thousands of kilometers away who wanted gold with a story they could verify. The Alliance for Responsible Mining describes the program as:

"the first fair supply chain from artisanal miners of African descent in the jungles of western Colombia to ethically committed jewelers in Europe."¹⁴

Oro Verde's certified miners produced around 12 kilograms of fine gold and more than 4 kilograms of platinum a year, from more than 14 kilograms of raw gold.¹⁵ By 2012, Oro Verde metals were being sold to jewelers in eleven countries, among them Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, France, Canada, Australia and the United States.¹

The pioneer jewelers

The buyers were the pioneers of ethical jewelry:

• Jan Spille, a goldsmith in Hamburg, sourced gold from Oro Verde, which he described as a cooperative that "washes gold without chemicals".¹⁶
• Toby Pomeroy, a US jeweler, traveled to the Oro Verde mines in 2010 and used their gold for a line of bridal jewelry.¹⁷
• Cox & Power, a British jeweler, created the world's first Fairtrade and Fairmined certified platinum jewelry – earrings and a matching ring – from Oro Verde platinum in December 2012.¹⁸

For these jewelers, Oro Verde offered something that almost no other gold could at the time: a known origin, the names of the communities behind it and rules that had been checked.¹⁷ That combination is still what sets certified gold from small-scale mining apart today.

How did Oro Verde lead to ARM and Fairmined?

Oro Verde was the seed from which the Alliance for Responsible Mining grew. What began as a local program in Chocó became the starting point for an international organization and, eventually, a global standard. In 2010, ARM's then executive director, Cristina Echavarría, looked back:

"Emerging from the deep rainforest of the Colombian Chocó, far from the 'hi-tech' mining sector, the sole idea of certification of Artisanal gold mining proposed by Oro Verde® almost ten years ago, seemed like madness to everyone working in the sector."¹⁹

Oro Verde's founders helped create ARM, which took shape in Quito in 2004 and was formally established in 2008.¹⁹¹⁴ Catalina Cock Duque presided over ARM until 2009.²⁰ Today, the Alliance for Responsible Mining works with small-scale miners across Latin America, Africa and Asia.²¹

From Standard Zero to Fairmined

Oro Verde's rules became the template for an international standard. ARM first drafted its "Standard Zero for Fair Trade Gold" in 2006. It evolved into the joint Fairtrade and Fairmined Standard in 2010. In 2013, ARM set up its own independent standard and certification system, and since 2014 the Fairmined Standard has applied in version 2.0.²²¹⁴ From 2009 to 2013, ARM developed the joint label with Fairtrade International; since then, Fairtrade Gold has had its own standard.²¹

The first certificates closed the circle. The Condoto community council received the first Fairtrade and Fairmined certificate for ecological gold ever issued, reported in February 2011.²³ ASOCASAN in Tadó followed as the second organization with this certification, reported in January 2012.²⁴ "The golden doors of fairness are now open for all the small miners in the world," said Jorge Perea, a community leader in Condoto.²⁵

ARM later summed up what the program had achieved:

"For the first time ever, ecological gold from Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) was certified and the gold sold to pioneering ethical jewelers across the globe."²⁶

Oro Verde's idea in today's standard

The core of Oro Verde lives on in Fairmined Ecological Gold. The Fairmined Standard allows only gravity-based methods for it, with no mercury and no cyanide, and requires mining organizations to rehabilitate the native ecosystem from the outset.²² Oro Verde's miners had already worked this way two decades earlier.

The standard also rewards it. On top of the Fairmined Premium of 4,000 US dollars per kilogram, it adds an Ecological Premium of 2,000 US dollars per kilogram.²² According to the standard, that premium may also make up for the lower gold recovery of mercury-free and cyanide-free methods. More in our explainer on Fairmined Ecological Gold.

Is Oro Verde still active?

No. Oro Verde's certified trade ended around 2014, and the program is no longer Fairmined certified today.²⁷ The pressure described above took its toll: mechanized outsiders dug up the rivers, and armed groups extorted money from mining operations. In April 2014, Amichocó, the program's support organization, closed. ARM said at the time that Oro Verde would continue under the leadership of the community organization.²⁶

Pioneers pay the learning costs. Oro Verde's method worked: gold and platinum recovered without mercury or cyanide, sold with a known origin, under rules set by the communities themselves. What was missing was protection from the pressure around the program and an organization that could carry it for the long term.

That is exactly why ARM and the Fairmined Standard exist today: independent audits, a global network of buyers and continuity beyond any single project. In ARM's words, Fairmined was able "to develop a global standard and learn from the advances and challenges that Oro Verde has faced."²⁶

Oro Verde's legacy today

Oro Verde's idea has outlived the program itself. Mercury-free and cyanide-free gold from small-scale mining is certified today, for example in Peru. Oro Puno in the Puno region became the first Peruvian mining organization to obtain the Fairmined Ecological Gold certification in 2018, recovering gold with gravimetric methods alone. The CECOMIP cooperative in the same region followed in 2021.²⁸

In Colombia, the Fairmined story continues at mines such as Iquira in the coffee region of Huila and Chede in Cauca.²⁷ For what these standards achieve on the ground, see our overview of responsible small-scale gold mining – and our profiles of responsible gold mines that work under them today.

Across all countries, ARM counted ten Fairmined-certified mines in 2025, and certified mining organizations sold around 99.95 kilograms of Fairmined gold that year.²⁹ Catalina Cock Duque, who founded Oro Verde, was named a Social Innovator of the Year 2024 by the World Economic Forum's Schwab Foundation, for her later work with Fundación Mi Sangre.²⁰

What she and the miners of Chocó started more than 25 years ago is now part of every gram of Fairmined Gold: independently audited rules, a guaranteed premium and a traceable supply chain from certified mines.²² In its ecological form, it is still gold recovered the way Oro Verde did it – with gravity instead of mercury or cyanide.

FAQs: Oro Verde

Key takeaways

• Responsible small-scale mining started as a community idea. Afro-Colombian miners and their councils wrote the rules, had them checked and found buyers – years before international standards existed.
• Gold without mercury is possible at community scale. Oro Verde showed that gravity and plant knowledge can recover fine gold and platinum. Fairmined Ecological Gold is built on exactly that principle.
• Strong standards need strong institutions behind them. Backhoes, armed groups and the closure of its support organization ended Oro Verde. ARM and the Fairmined Standard now provide the audits, the global network and the continuity that a single program could not.
• Oro Verde's legacy is available today. Certified mercury-free and cyanide-free gold from small-scale mining is on the market, for example from Peru.

What to do next

Oro Verde's gold is no longer on the market, but its idea is. If you want gold that is mined without mercury or cyanide, with a known origin, take a look at our Fairmined Ecological Gold – or browse our full range of Fairmined Gold.

Further reading

• Gold recovered without mercury or cyanide, certified today: Fairmined Ecological Gold.
• The organization Oro Verde helped create: the Alliance for Responsible Mining.
• The rules in detail: the Fairmined Gold Standard.

Sources

1. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Buying Green: How Gold Mining is Changing Colors, IP Advantage case study, last updated January 28, 2013: founding in 2000 ("A milestone was reached in 2000 when Afro-Colombian miners in Chocó joined hands with social entrepreneurs and formed Corporacion Oro Verde"); founder Catalina Cock Duque; criteria "developed in consultation with Community Councils", including limiting ecological destruction, eliminating chemicals, ensuring gender equality, abolishing child labor (no one under 15 in the mines, no one under 18 in dangerous conditions) and "restricting mining activity located in a forest to 10% of the area"; topsoil set aside and replaced; 7,900 ha of tropical forest protected by 2007; "In 2012, 28% of Oro Verde's certified miners were women"; sales to jewelers in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, the UK and the USA. ↩
2. Sarmiento, Ayala, Urán, Giraldo, Perea & Mosquera, Legitimidad e innovación en la minería: el caso del Programa Oro Verde, Letras Verdes 14, FLACSO Ecuador, September 2013. Co-authored by leaders of the program. Informal alliance in 1999, decision for "oro verde" in 2000, formalization as Corporación Oro Verde in 2001 (pp. 295–297); IIAP as the first certifying body; "112 Unidades Mineras Familiares y/o Colectivas Sostenibles certificadas donde participan aproximadamente 700 mineros de Tadó y Condoto", certified as Fairtrade-Fairmined in 2010 and 2011 (p. 297); Law 70 "reconoce el derecho a la propiedad colectiva de comunidades afrodescendientes … También establece a los consejos comunitarios elegidos localmente como autoridades de gobierno" (p. 290); certification strengthened the collective territory through "procesos de control y vigilancia, empoderamiento económico y político" (p. 299); gold from small-scale mechanized mining "ha sido utilizado para financiar grupos guerrilleros y paramilitares" (pp. 291–292). Quotes translated by us. ↩
3. Corporación Oro Verde, Final Project Completion Report to the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), project period June 2005 to March 2007, dated May 23, 2007: 194 certified family productive units, against a target of 150. ↩
4. Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena, biodiversity hotspot profile, accessed September 2026. ↩
5. Agence France-Presse, Deep in Colombian jungle, a first in eco gold, published via phys.org, July 2010. ↩
6. Equator Initiative (UNDP), Consejo Comunitario Mayor del Alto San Juan – ASOCASAN, April 24, 2020: collective territory of 54,517 ha, 21 communities, 4,637 people in 1,460 families. ↩
7. Nicolás Sánchez A., Paz con hambre generaría nuevos conflictos en Chocó, El Espectador, June 28, 2017, report from the community of Angostura in Tadó. Quotes translated by us. Originals: "Hacia 1986, esa vía se habilitó para el tránsito de vehículos y la primera retroexcavadora llegó …"; "el metal que lograban sacar con la minería artesanal en tres meses, con la retro … lo extraían en un día"; "Continúa una fuerte presencia paramilitar bajo el nombre de Los Rastrojos, que se disputa con las Farc el control del negocio de la coca"; Américo Mosquera, community leader: "El conflicto armado nos golpeó mucho porque este es un corredor y cuando había enfrentamientos se suspendían nuestras actividades"; Belarmina Mosquera, resident: "Nosotros sabemos que las retroexcavadoras nos han hecho daño, pero nos alivianan mucho el trabajo". ↩
8. Cuestión Pública and La Liga Contra el Silencio, Las dragas que desangran el Chocó, series "Ríos de mercurio", last updated December 13, 2024: "Los brasileños predominan como operadores de las dragas desde 2001 en la cuenca del Río San Juan y Río Quito", as confirmed by the mayor of Río Quito. ↩
9. Brooks, Sierra-Giraldo & Mena Palacios, Green Gold – Dirty Gold, Tadó, Dept. Chocó, Colombia, Natural Resources 6(11), 2015: "The leaves of Balso (Ochroma pyramidale) and Malva (Hibiscus furcellatus) are crushed by hand and are mixed with water to make a foamy liquid"; "the plant juice-water mixture breaks the surface tension of the water and allows precipitation of the very fine-grained gold"; high specific gravity minerals such as gold, platinum and magnetite sink, while quartz, feldspars and micas remain suspended. The study also names guácimo blanco (Goethalsia meiantha) and yarumo (Cecropia), and describes dredges working with copper plates smeared with mercury. ↩
10. Mariana Sarmiento, Ana Cristina Soto, Alexandra Urán and Ingrid Lozada, Pequeña minería en el Chocó, Razón Pública, April 23, 2012: "estos actores violentos pueden recaudar una suma de 1.500.000 de pesos mensuales por cada retroexcavadora del entable minero o un 15 por ciento de la producción". ↩
11. Constitutional Court of Colombia, Judgment T-622 of November 10, 2016, summarized by ABColombia, T-622 – Atrato River and Illegal Gold Mining. ↩
12. UN Environment Programme, Global Mercury Assessment 2018, 2019, emissions to air for the 2015 inventory year: artisanal and small-scale gold mining 838 t, 37.7 % of the anthropogenic total of 2,220 t. ↩
13. Semana, Nuevos métodos y técnicas para extraer el oro sin contaminar a las regiones, July 24, 2018, editorial series "Colombia sin mercurio": "Estas comunidades encontraron 48 especies vegetales –entre ellas el yarumo y el balso de lana– que logran el mismo efecto del mercurio en la extracción del oro: atrapan el metal en la babaza de las plantas trituradas y lo separan del agua, piedras y arena." Translated by us. ↩
14. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Report 2024, 2025, chapter "Celebrating 20 Years of Commitment to Responsible Mining", pp. 10–11: "What we know today as ARM began to germinate in 2004 in the city of Quito, Ecuador"; 2008: "ARM is officially born, inspired by the pioneering experience of Oro Verde, the first fair supply chain from artisanal miners of African descent in the jungles of western Colombia to ethically committed jewelers in Europe."; 2013: "ARM establishes an independent Fairmined Standard and our own certification system." ↩
15. WIPO, as note 1: "over 14 kilograms (kg) of gold (with 85% purity) and over 4kg of platinum annually". Our own calculation of the fine gold content: 14 kg × 0.85 = 11.9 kg, rounded to around 12 kg. No purity is given for the platinum. ↩
16. Knut Henkel, Sauberes Gold: Mühsam ist das Sieben, taz, July 20, 2012: "Außerdem von der Genossenschaft Oro Verde aus Kolumbien, die – ähnlich wie Ecoandina – ohne Chemikalien Gold wäscht." Translated by us. ↩
17. Toby Pomeroy, Toby's trip to Oro Verde mines in Colombia's Choco Bioregion, July 5, 2010: "At TOBY POMEROY we are excited and privileged to be using Oro Verde gold for a line of bridal jewelry we are now offering." ↩
18. Alliance for Responsible Mining, The world's first Fairtrade and Fairmined platinum jewelery!, May 22, 2013: launch of "the world's first ever Fairtrade and Fairmined (FT&FM) certified platinum jewelery" by Cox & Power in December 2012, from platinum mined by "112 Afro-Colombian mining families in Chocó, from the Oro Verde Corporation"; "The Oro Verde communities do not use mercury or cyanide." ↩
19. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Annual Report 2010, letter from the Executive Director, Cristina Echavarría, p. 3. The same letter states: "In 2005 Oro Verde partnered with the South American Artisanal Mining Network to create the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM)." ↩
20. Alliance for Responsible Mining, post congratulating Catalina Cock Duque on LinkedIn, January 2024 (founder of Oro Verde, "presiding over ARM until 2009"); World Economic Forum, Social Innovators of the Year 2024, press release, January 16, 2024: "Catalina Cock Duque, Co-Founder of Fundación Mi Sangre (Colombia)". ↩
21. Alliance for Responsible Mining, History, accessed September 2026: partnership with Fairtrade International from 2009; first Fairtrade & Fairmined gold on the market in the UK and Canada on February 14, 2011; ARM and Fairtrade International "decided not to renew the partnership on Fairtrade & Fairmined Gold in 2013". ↩
22. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Fairmined Standard for Gold from Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining, including Associated Precious Metals, version 2.0, applicable from April 5, 2014: section 0.7 ("The Fairmined Standard evolved from ARM's 'Standard Zero for Fair Trade Gold' (2006) and from the later 'Fairtrade and Fairmined Standard for Gold from Artisanal and Small-scale miners, including associated silver and platinum' (2010)"); section 2.3 on Ecological Gold (only gravimetric methods, no mercury or cyanide, requirement 2.3.1; rehabilitation of the native ecosystem from the outset, 2.3.3; the Ecological Premium "may also compensate for economic losses due to lower gold recovery of the applied mercury-free and cyanide-free processing techniques"); Fairmined Premium of 4,000 US dollars and Ecological Premium of 2,000 US dollars per kilogram (5.2.5, 5.2.6). ↩
23. Natural Justice, First Fair Trade and Fairmined Gold from Oro Verde, February 10, 2011: "the first ever Fair Trade and Fairmined certificate for Ecological Gold". The first Fairtrade & Fairmined certified organization overall was the Cotapata mining cooperative in Bolivia (The Scotsman, Miners enjoy taste of success with world's first Fairtrade gold, February 13, 2011). ↩
24. Natural Justice, Oro Verde Fairtrade and Fairmined Certification, January 17, 2012: "only the second organisation to receive both Fairtrade and Fairmined Ecological certification for gold and platinum mining". ↩
25. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Colombia: first ever Fairtrade and Fairmined Ecological Gold from Condoto, Oro Verde!, news post (the URL carries a 2010 date; the content refers to the 2011 certification), quoting Jorge Perea, Condoto community council. ↩
26. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Update from Oro Verde and AMICHOCÓ, May 14, 2014: "For the first time ever, ecological gold from Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) was certified and the gold sold to pioneering ethical jewelers across the globe"; Oro Verde "led the way for initiatives like our own Fairmined standard"; "Based on their experiences, Fairmined has been able to develop a global standard and learn from the advances and challenges that Oro Verde has faced"; AMICHOCÓ "now puts an end to their journey"; "Oro Verde will continue its journey as community leaders". The Spanish version dates Amichocó's announcement to April 29, 2014. ↩
27. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Fairmined Credits – Communications and Mine Profiles, 2025 (certified mines in Colombia: Chede, Iquira, La Gabriela, Los Conquistadores, Correa Chavestan; supply as of June 2025), and Fairmined, Community profiles, accessed September 2026 – neither lists Oro Verde, ASOCASAN or COCOMACOIRO. On the end of the certified trade around 2014 see notes 7 and 26. ↩
28. Fairmined, Oro Puno, accessed September 2026 (Fairmined Ecological Gold since January 15, 2018; "the first Peruvian mining organization in the sector to obtain the Fairmined Ecological Gold certification"); Fairmined, CECOMIP mining organization achieves the Fairmined Ecological Gold certification, 2022 (certification in August 2021). ↩
29. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Annual Report 2025, 2026: 10 certified mines in 2025 (key figures, p. 13); 77.35 kg of Fairmined gold through physical supply chains and 22.6 kg through Fairmined Credits, around 99.95 kg in total (executive summary, p. 10, and p. 40; the key figures page gives 78.60 kg for the physical supply chain). ↩