Campaign targets gold mining

A new effort by activists to decrease consumer demand for gold is being characterized as a "smear campaign" by the Nevada mining industry.

Earthworks/Mineral Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy group focused on mining, and Oxfam America, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that works on human rights issues, recently launched the "Dirty Gold," campaign aimed at educating users about the way gold is produced.

For several days during the recent Valentine's Day week, the groups handed out cards with the message "Don't tarnish your love with dirty gold," in front of jewelry stores in Boston, New York City and the nation's capitol.

The goal is to educate consumers who are unaware of how gold jewelry gets made, said Payal Sampat, international campaign director at the Mineral Policy Center.

"The general public doesn't have an understanding of the impact of mining," said Sampat.

"The first step is to educate and inform the public of the impact of gold mining."

The groups claim, among other things, that mining employs less than one-tenth of the global workforce but consumes between 7 and 10 percent of the world's energy.

It also generates 20 tons of mine waste to produce an 18- karat gold ring weighing less than an ounce, according to the campaign.

"The points they make certainly don't apply to gold mining in the U.S.

and certainly not in Nevada," said Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association in Reno.

"What we've got here is a lot of inaccuracies.

It just appears to be a smear campaign."

Fields said that while he didn't know how much waste was created to produce a single gold ring, he said that the industry is heavily regulated by the government, which requires that land used for mining be reclaimed, or restored, once mining ceases.

He also said that the mining industry is required to leave sites with drinking waterstandard ground and surface waters.

"We've not had any deaths related to cyanide," said Fields, referring to the compound used by miners to draw gold from rock.

Fields also said that mining is beneficial to Nevada because it provides jobs and pays taxes.

Much of the activists' work, entailed in a report called "Dirty Metals: Mining Communities and the Environment," does focus on human rights, workers' rights and environmental abuses outside the United States, in Peru, Indonesian and other mining spots around the world.

In Nevada, the groups are working with the Western Shoshone Defense Project, a Crescent Valley-based organization working to protect and restore land rights of the Western Shoshone tribe.

The group is involved in litigation over the Treaty of Ruby Valley, under which the tribe is to be compensated for use of its tribal lands.

The treaty also requires that the land be utilized in an environmentally-safe manner, according to Julie Fishel, who works on the Land Recognition Program at the project.

That litigation involves land now mined, under agreement with the Bureau of Land Management, by Placer Dome Inc., which operates the Cortez gold mine there.

The land in question also includes Yucca Mountain.

"The goal of the campaign is not to destroy the [mining] industry but to ensure fair treatment," of the tribe, mine workers and the land, said Fishel.

The National Mining Association put out a release when the consumer campaign was launched, defending the industry's practices and contradicting its critics without naming them.

Fields said he is working with the Nevada association's public outreach staff now to determine if the group will counter with its own drive.

"I don't know if there will be an education campaign or not, but we're certainly thinking about it," said Fields.

"But if we reacted every time the mining industry was criticized all we'd be doing is reacting."