What is Fairmined Ecological Gold?

Fairmined Ecological Gold is certified gold from small-scale mines that is recovered with gravity alone – without mercury or cyanide. In a sector that is the world's largest source of man-made mercury emissions to air, it sets the highest bar of the Fairmined Standard and pays miners its highest premium: 6,000 US dollars per kilogram. Here is what the certification requires, why gravity-only gold is rare, and what you can honestly tell your customers about it.

Key insights

• Fairmined Ecological Gold is the most demanding category of the Fairmined Standard. Certified small-scale mines recover it without mercury or cyanide, using gravity methods only – and meet every other Fairmined requirement as well.
• Gravity alone only works in the right deposits. It needs coarse, free gold, as found in many river and glacial deposits, and it recovers less gold than chemistry. That is why the standard rewards ecological gold instead of requiring it.
• Miners receive the highest premium in the Fairmined Standard. On top of at least 95 % of the LBMA gold price, buyers pay a Fairmined Premium of 4,000 US dollars plus an Ecological Premium of 2,000 US dollars per kilogram.
• Fairmined Ecological Gold stays physically traceable without exception. It may only be blended with other Fairmined Ecological Gold; mixed with regular Fairmined Gold, it loses its ecological status.
• Fairever sources its Fairmined Eco Gold from Oro Puno in Peru. The mine washes gold out of glacial gravel high in the Andes, and in 2018 it became the first Peruvian mining organization with this certification.

Table of contents

• Fairmined Ecological Gold at a glance
• What is Fairmined Ecological Gold?
  • Pioneers since 2011
• What "ecological" means in the Fairmined Standard
  • No mercury and no cyanide in processing
  • A plan to minimize ecological disruption
  • Restoring nature from the outset
  • Every other Fairmined rule still applies
• How mercury-free gold recovery works
  • Why recovering gold without mercury matters
  • Sluices, shaking tables and pans
  • Why geology decides
  • The yield trade-off
• How much is the Ecological Premium?
• Traceable without exception
• Where our Fairmined Eco Gold comes from
• What you can honestly claim
  • Jewelry brands that use Fairmined Eco Gold
• FAQs: What is Fairmined Ecological Gold?
• Key takeaways
  • In a nutshell ...
  • Get active, be the change!
  • Further reading
• Sources

Fairmined Ecological Gold at a glance

What is Fairmined Ecological Gold?

Fairmined Ecological Gold is certified gold from artisanal and small-scale mining that is recovered without mercury or cyanide, using gravity methods only. It is the ecological category of the Fairmined Standard, published by the nonprofit Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM). Its short name is Fairmined Eco Gold. It is the only category of the Fairmined Standard that requires mercury-free gold processing.

Every gram of Fairmined Ecological Gold is first of all Fairmined Gold. It comes from a certified mining organization, with a guaranteed minimum price, a premium, annual independent audits and traceability to the mine. The ecological category adds strict environmental rules on top.¹ The basics are explained in the Fairmined Gold Standard, the certified metal in what is Fairmined Gold?

The category also covers silver and platinum mined together with the gold. Silver from a mine certified for ecological gold can be sold as Fairmined Ecological Silver.¹

Pioneers since 2011

The first certification for ecological gold went to Colombia in 2011. River miners of the Oro Verde initiative in Chocó received what was then "the first ever Fair Trade and Fairmined certificate for Ecological Gold."² At the time, Fairtrade and ARM still ran a joint label.

In 2015, the Mongolian organization XAMODX became the first artisanal and small-scale mining organization outside South America to reach Fairmined certification – for ecological gold.³ A year later, ARM reported that XAMODX and five mining organizations in La Llanada, Colombia, were the only artisanal mining organizations in the world with independently certified gold production without mercury or cyanide.⁴

The circle has stayed small. In 2023, the most recent year for which ARM has published a count, two Fairmined-certified mines held the ecological certification.⁵

What "ecological" means in the Fairmined Standard

"Ecological" has a precise meaning in the Fairmined Standard: three additional requirements. All three are entry requirements. They apply from the first audit onward, not after a transition period, and cover the entire certified System of Production – the miners, areas and plants that produce the ecological gold.¹

No mercury and no cyanide in processing

Requirement 2.3.1 is the core of Fairmined Ecological Gold: "Mercury or cyanide must not be used for mineral processing; only gravimetric methods are used."¹ Gravimetric means that gold is separated from sand and rock by its weight alone.

This is what sets the ecological category apart. Regular Fairmined mines may still use mercury and cyanide under strict rules: whole-ore amalgamation is banned, retorts to recover mercury are mandatory, and cyanide must be detoxified before discharge.¹ Their use of mercury is restricted and phased down. For Fairmined Ecological Gold, both chemicals are ruled out entirely.

A plan to minimize ecological disruption

Requirement 2.3.2 obliges the mining organization to minimize "ecological disruption due to mining" through an environmental management plan.¹ Regular Fairmined mines need valid environmental licenses or management plans under national law. For ecological gold, a management plan aimed at keeping the footprint of the mine to a minimum is a condition of entry.

Restoring nature from the outset

Requirement 2.3.3 asks the mining organization to rehabilitate the native ecosystem "from the outset" – or to agree on an alternative use in line with the land-use priorities of local community authorities.¹ The standard names forest restoration in areas of high biodiversity as one example.

Regular Fairmined mines must give mined land back too, but on a longer timeline: by year 3, pits must be refilled or sealed and the land topographically restored; by year 6, it must be replanted or otherwise restored.¹ For ecological gold, rehabilitation starts on day one.

Every other Fairmined rule still applies

The ecological requirements come on top, not instead. A Fairmined Ecological mine must meet all other rules of the Fairmined Gold Standard as well: legal mining rights, protective equipment and safety training, fair pay, a ban on employing children under 15 and on hazardous work for anyone under 18, and a premium committee that decides on the use of the premium.¹

Independent certification bodies recognized by ARM check all of this at the mine, every year.⁶

How mercury-free gold recovery works

Mercury-free gold recovery uses water, motion and gravity instead of chemistry. For Fairmined Ecological Gold, it is the only method allowed. To see why that matters, it helps to look at the alternative first.

Why recovering gold without mercury matters

Mercury is the signature pollutant of small-scale gold mining. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is the largest source of man-made mercury emissions to air, with 37.7 % of the global total.⁷ Miners mix mercury with ore or concentrate so that it binds the gold into an amalgam, then heat the amalgam to drive off the mercury as vapor.⁸

The worst practice is whole-ore amalgamation, in which mercury is mixed with all the ore instead of a concentrate. It is inefficient as well: it "rarely captures more than 30% of the gold," according to a practical guide published for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).⁸ How mercury affects rivers, soil and people is covered in our overview of gold mining's environmental impact.

Sluices, shaking tables and pans

Gravity methods separate gold by its weight. Gold is far heavier than the sand and gravel around it, so it settles where lighter material is washed away. Fairmined lists the typical equipment: "gutters, concentration tables, centrifugal concentrators or pans."⁹

In practice, the steps build on each other:

• Sluices are inclined troughs, usually lined with a carpet. Gold and other heavy minerals sink to the bottom, while lighter particles are carried away with the water.¹⁰
• Centrifugal concentrators spin the material and can recover fine as well as coarse gold particles.¹⁰
• Shaking tables upgrade the concentrate further. Efficient tables recover gold particles as fine as 32 micrometers.¹¹
• Pans clean up the final concentrate by hand.

Why geology decides

Gravity alone only works where gold is coarse and free. "Deposit type dictates the type of extraction possible, which in turn dictates if and how mercury is used (and potentially eliminated)," the UNEP guide explains. Simple panning, it adds, "works best when [gold] is coarse and well liberated."⁸

That is typical of many alluvial deposits, where rivers or glaciers have already freed the gold from the rock. "Alluvial deposits generally consist of free milling ores which are mostly liberated," a 2023 review in the journal Ambio notes. In refractory ores, in contrast, "gold particles are occluded in other minerals making liberation difficult."¹¹ Particle size sets a limit too: most gravity devices "are not very efficient for grain sizes finer than 0.074 mm," with centrifuges as the main exception.¹⁰

In hard-rock mines such as Iquira in Colombia, gold is often locked inside other minerals. There, cyanide, used under strict Fairmined rules, is part of the solution. It recovers far more gold than mercury and does not persist in the environment the way mercury does.⁸

The yield trade-off

Gravity alone usually recovers less gold than chemistry. UNEP describes a well-designed, mercury-free gravity plant in Mongolia that "recovers around 70% of the total gold," which the guide calls "a relatively high percentage for an ASGM operation." Cyanide, by comparison, can obtain "often 90% of the gold in the ore."⁸

That is why the Fairmined Standard does not make mercury- and cyanide-free processing a condition for all mines. Doing so would exclude "95% of all artisanal miners" from certification, the standard explains.¹ Instead, it rewards ecological gold with an extra premium, which "may also compensate for economic losses due to lower gold recovery of the applied mercury-free and cyanide-free processing techniques."¹

How much is the Ecological Premium?

For Fairmined Ecological Gold, buyers pay 6,000 US dollars in premiums per kilogram – the highest premium in the Fairmined Standard. It consists of the regular Fairmined Premium of 4,000 US dollars and the Ecological Premium of 2,000 US dollars.¹¹²

Both come on top of a minimum price of at least 95 % of the LBMA gold price, and the premium is paid in full to the mining organization.¹ As a first authorized buyer, Fairever voluntarily pays 96–99 % of the LBMA price.¹³

The effect is easy to calculate. A wedding ring of 8 grams in 18-karat gold contains 6 grams of fine gold. Made with Fairmined Ecological Gold, it brings the mine 36 US dollars in premiums: 6 grams × 6 US dollars. For Fairmined Ecological Silver, the premium is 150 US dollars per kilogram – 100 plus 50.¹

The miners decide how the money is spent. A Premium Committee that represents all groups in the mining organization, including women miners, sets the priorities, and the organization reports publicly on the results every year.¹ What premiums have paid for, mine by mine: what the Fairmined Premium is used for.

Traceable without exception

Fairmined Ecological Gold must be physically traceable at all times, with no exceptions. The standard calls it "a very exceptional product that deserves handling with special care."¹ For regular Fairmined Gold, it allows narrow exceptions, for example when a mine must outsource a processing step; for ecological gold, it does not.

Blending is restricted too. Fairmined Ecological Gold may only be combined with other Fairmined Ecological Gold. If it is blended with regular Fairmined Gold, "the resulting product is always (ordinary) Fairmined Gold," the standard's market rules state.¹

Jewelry made with it can carry the Fairmined product label, which ARM also provides in versions for ecological metals.¹⁴ Only products whose gold stays physically separate from mine to finished piece may carry the label.¹

We go one step further and keep our Fairmined Eco Gold separate by mine. Our label names the mine and its Fairmined ID.¹³ Why that matters: traceable gold.

Where our Fairmined Eco Gold comes from

Fairever sources its Fairmined Ecological Gold from Oro Puno in Peru. The small mining company works in the district of Ananea, in the Puno region, high in the Andes.¹⁵ Its miners recover gold from a glacial moraine – "the material left behind from a thawing, retreating glacier," as ARM puts it.¹⁶

On January 15, 2018, Oro Puno became the first Peruvian mining organization to obtain the Fairmined Ecological Gold certification.¹⁵ As of September 2026, it holds the certification under the Fairmined ID PE10018E.¹³

Oro Puno shows what the requirements look like in practice. High-pressure water hoses wash the gravel, and a shaking table separates the fine gold without mercury.¹⁷¹⁸ The process water is collected, cleaned and reused.¹⁸ In 2020, the mine closed and replanted 18,000 square meters of mined land with native plants.¹⁹

Our strategic partner, the Betts Group, refines the gold, and it stays separate from all other gold. We offer it as fine gold grain, 999.9, ready for alloying and casting. Oro Puno's gold also contains a little silver, which is refined separately and available as Fairmined Ecological Silver, in the small quantities the mine produces.¹³ The mine in full: the Oro Puno gold mine.

What you can honestly claim

Fairmined Ecological Gold lets you make concrete environmental claims – as long as you name what the certification requires. Since September 27, 2026, EU rules against greenwashing ban generic environmental claims such as "eco-friendly" for gold. A claim only counts as specific if what it means is stated clearly and prominently in the same medium.²⁰

The standard itself supports provenance claims. Complete physical and documentary traceability of ecological gold allows every operator, "from first buyer to final retailer," to state which mining organizations produced the gold in a product.¹

Claims that are specific and verifiable, for example:

• "Made with Fairmined Ecological Gold" – for pieces whose gold stays physically separate from mine to product.
• "The gold in this piece was recovered without mercury or cyanide, using gravity methods only, and is certified to the Fairmined Standard."
• "The mining organization received at least 95 % of the LBMA gold price plus 6,000 US dollars in premiums per kilogram."
• "The gold comes from Oro Puno, Peru (Fairmined ID PE10018E)" – when your supplier documents the mine.

Claims to avoid:

• Unspecified buzzwords such as "eco-friendly," "green," "clean" or "sustainable gold." Say what is behind them instead.
• "Chemical-free" or "without any toxic substances." The standard rules out mercury and cyanide in processing. That is the claim to make.
• Climate claims. The Fairmined Standard contains no requirements on greenhouse gases.
• Claims about the whole piece. In an 18-karat ring, 75 % of the metal is gold. The Fairmined label must make clear that only the gold, silver or platinum is certified.¹²⁰

More wording for your own communication: Fairmined product claims. This is guidance, not legal advice.

Jewelry brands that use Fairmined Eco Gold

A number of jewelers have built collections on it. In 2017, London-based designer Arabel Lebrusan launched what her studio called "the first Fairmined Ecological Gold collection to be launched in the UK," with gold from La Llanada in Colombia and from XAMODX in Mongolia.²¹ In New York, the jewelry brand FUTURA describes its jewelry as "exclusively made with Certified Fairmined Ecological gold."²²

FAQs: What is Fairmined Ecological Gold?

Key takeaways

In a nutshell ...

• "Ecological" is defined, not decorative. Fairmined Ecological Gold must meet three entry requirements: gravity methods only with no mercury or cyanide, an environmental management plan, and rehabilitation of the native ecosystem from the outset.
• Geology decides where gravity alone can do the job. Coarse, free gold in river and glacial deposits makes it possible; gold locked in hard rock usually needs chemistry.
• The premium pays for the harder way. 6,000 US dollars per kilogram helps offset lower gold recovery – for the 6 grams of fine gold in an 18-karat wedding ring, that is 36 US dollars for the mine.
• Name the requirement, not a buzzword. "Recovered without mercury or cyanide, using gravity methods only" is clearer than "eco-friendly" – and holds up under EU rules.
• Ask for the mine. Ask your supplier which mine your Fairmined Ecological Gold comes from, and for its Fairmined ID.

Get active, be the change!

Our Fairmined Eco Gold comes as fine gold grain, 999.9, ready to alloy and cast.

Want to work with gold recovered by gravity alone? Take a look at our Fairmined Eco Gold – or get in touch and ask us about Oro Puno, the mine behind it.

Further reading

• The mine behind our ecological gold, from glacial gravel to fine grain: the Oro Puno gold mine in Peru.
• All rules of the certification, from mercury to minimum price: the Fairmined Gold Standard.
• What you can safely tell your customers: Fairmined product claims.

Sources

1. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Fairmined Standard for Gold from Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, including Associated Precious Metals, version 2.0, April 5, 2014: intent of sections 1.4, 2.1, 2.3 and 4; requirements 0.2.4, 1.4.2–1.4.4, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.9, 2.2.1, 2.2.6, 2.2.9, 2.2.10, 2.3.1–2.3.3, 3.2.1, 3.2.5, section 3.4, 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 4.1.2, 4.1.5, 4.1.8, 5.2.1, 5.2.5, 5.2.6 and 5.2.8; Market Annex 2.1.2, intent of section 2.2 and 2.2.1. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
2. Natural Justice, First Fair Trade and Fairmined Gold from Oro Verde, February 10, 2011. ↩
3. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Ecological gold from Mongolia: artisanal miners obtain Fairmined certification, February 2015. ↩
4. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Fairmined Ecological Gold available from Mongolia and Colombia, April 2016. ↩
5. Alliance for Responsible Mining, ARM Annual Report 2023, 2024, p. 12. ↩
6. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Procedimientos para la Auditoría y la Certificación en el Estándar Fairmined para las OMAPE, version 2, December 23, 2022, section 5.1. ↩
7. UN Environment Programme, Global Mercury Assessment 2018, 2019. Emissions in 2015. ↩
8. Kevin Telmer and Daniel Stapper, Artisanal Gold Council, for UNEP, Reducing Mercury Use in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining: A Practical Guide, 2012, pp. 10, 16, 48, 54, 56 and 60. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
9. Fairmined, Fairmined Gold and Fairmined Ecological Gold: differences and benefits, April 10, 2019, updated July 7, 2023. ↩
10. Marcello M. Veiga and Aaron J. Gunson, Gravity Concentration in Artisanal Gold Mining, Minerals 10(11), 2020, article 1026. ↩ ↩ ↩
11. Susan Keane et al., Mercury and artisanal and small-scale gold mining: Review of global use estimates and considerations for promoting mercury-free alternatives, Ambio 52, 2023, pp. 833–852. ↩ ↩
12. Fairmined, The Fairmined Standard, accessed September 2026. ↩
13. Fairever, internal information, September 2026. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
14. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Fairmined Brand Identity & Mark Manual, 2020, p. 29 (not publicly available). ↩
15. Fairmined, Oro Puno, community profile, accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩
16. Fairmined, A new Fairmined certification in Peru, February 16, 2018. ↩
17. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Minera Oro Puno S.A., mine profile, undated (published 2020). ↩
18. Saskia Shutt, My Trip to the Fairmined Gold Mines in Peru, undated, accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩
19. Alliance for Responsible Mining, Fairmined Premium Report 2020, 2021. ↩
20. European Union, Directive (EU) 2024/825 on empowering consumers for the green transition, February 28, 2024, Article 2(p), Annex I, points 4a and 4b, and Article 4. National rules apply from September 27, 2026. ↩ ↩
21. Lebrusan Studio, Press release: The first Fairmined Ecological Gold collection to be launched in the UK, February 1, 2017. ↩
22. FUTURA, About FUTURA, accessed September 2026. ↩