Traces of Gold: How Bi-regional Knowledge Exchanges can Mitigate Socio-Environmental Impacts of Gold Exploitation in Colombia

• Erik Post (The Netherlands) and Mónica Gónzalez (Colombia)
• 26. August 2020

The expansion of mining activities in Colombia has led to socio-environmental contradictions that aggravate armed conflicts, environmental destruction, and land and water grabs. Because gold exploitation in Colombia and consumption habits in Europe are intimately connected, this article argues that knowledge exchange between the European and LAC regions can help mitigate these negative effects. 

Introduction

Due to the unprecedented commodity price boom of the last two decades, mining operations are intensifying throughout the Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC). In Colombia, this expansion has led to widespread socio-environmental contradictions that aggravate armed conflicts, environmental destruction, as well as land and water grabs.[i] It is estimated that between 2000 and 2016, at least 179 active socio-environmental conflicts were related to mining in Colombia.[ii]

This article argues that knowledge exchange between the European and LAC regions can help mitigate these negative effects. We highlight the linkages between the impacts of gold exploitation in Colombia’s Antioquia region and consumption habits in Europe through a global supply chain analysis. Since the European Union (EU) and Colombia have a close relationship and are self-described allies, we suggest that drawing on the respective strengths of both the European and LAC regions can mitigate socio-environmental stress related to mining.[iii] In the EU, exposure to LAC First Nations’ cosmovisions can motivate European consumers to minimise consumption of gold-carrying products. In Colombia, the government could integrate core European environmental law principles, such as the polluter pays principle and the precautionary principle, which stipulate that uncertainty or incomplete information are not reasons for postponing interventions to halt environmental degradation. Additionally, it could adopt stronger environmental standards governing mining operations inspired by EU legislation, such as increasing water recycling and reducing waste.

Case study: The socio-environmental impacts of mining in Colombia

Since colonial times, the region of Antioquia has been the main producer of gold in Colombia. Following the gold rush of the early 2000s, violence in the region has intensified, as illegal armed groups have consolidated their control over mining areas. This has increased territorial disputes in this region, which still produces 20% of Colombia’s gold.[iv]The 2011 census carried out by the Colombian Ministry of Environment estimates that over 90% of the gold mines do not have an environmental plan or license.[v] According to official statistics, only 5% of mining activities operate under proper environmental and safety practices.[vi]

Artisanal and illegal mining relies heavily on the use of mercury; it is environmentally harmful as the chemical waste poisons bodies of water. Most unlicensed gold mines are filled with toxic gases that negatively affect the miners’ health, which is further aggravated by their precarious working conditions. In these mines, the whole extraction process is conducted by hand and the mining material is carried on the miners’ back and shoulders. Not only are the miners placed into a dangerous work environment, they are also caught in the crossfire between illegal groups and the Colombian military.[vii]

Since thousands of families depend on unlicensed mining for survival, a lack of alternative opportunities is a key element in the maintenance of this situation. Consequently, the Colombian government is trapped in a dilemma: cracking down on illegal extraction and favouring international mining corporations puts the miners’ incomes at risk. Gold mining generates almost 50,000 jobs—around 40,000 of which are provided by illegal mining (80%)—while legal mining contributes the remaining 10,000.[viii] On the other hand, the formalisation and regulation of mining activities can reduce environmental damages and improve the working conditions of miners.

The global gold supply chain: From mines in Colombia to consumers in the EU

The main gateways for Colombian gold exports are international traders from the United States (US) and Switzerland, which are responsible for the majority of exports. International traders are also major conduits for illegally extracted gold: in 2016, their purchases of Colombian gold surpassed Colombia’s official production figures. These traders abuse Colombia’s free-trade zones to hide dirty dealings, since tax and customs regulations are weaker. Gold is also smuggled to Venezuela and Panama or shipped to the Netherlands via its territories in the Caribbean.[ix] Gold is notoriously difficult to track; it can be melted and mixed, rendering its origin untraceable. Even with existing due diligence practices, vast amounts of “illegal gold slip through the system.”’[x] Once gold leaves Colombia, there is no way of knowing whether it was procured from illegal mines, facilitating its unquestioned entry in the global supply. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate how gold enters an opaque network of transnational criminal networks, semi-legitimate traders and dubious refiners before reaching the global market.

In 2017, the EU imported 14 million Euros of gold from Colombia; however, most gold enters the EU in the form of jewellery and the circuit boards used in electronics.[xi] Data by the World Gold Council indicates that the overwhelming majority of gold demand arises from the rapidly expanding jewellery and technology industries.[xii]Illegally mined gold from Colombia inevitably ends up in smartphones, laptops, cars and even coins. A 2018 investigation by the Miami Herald exposed how a US-based trader sold illegally mined gold from South America to 67 different Fortune 500 companies, including Apple and Tiffany & Co.[xiii]

Whereas India and China dominate the global demand for gold, the EU is the largest single economy and trade block in the global economy. With 500 million consumers and more imports than the US, China, or India, a large share of products carrying gold ends up in the EU. A 2014 United Nations study points to the scale of EU electronics consumption, noting that nine of the ten largest producers of electrical and electronic waste per capita are found in Europe.[xiv] Echoing findings for other precious metals, such as tantalum, EU consumer behaviours are critical for global supply patterns, which in turn have local impacts in Colombia.[xv] Structurally reducing the consumption of gold-carrying products alters the global demand and price of gold, in turn dis-incentivising gold extraction in Colombia and elsewhere.

Figure 1: The gold supply chain in Colombia

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “Due Diligence in Colombia’s Gold Supply Chain – Overview,” OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas (Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2016), p. 10.

Figure 2: Illegal armed groups, criminal organisations and their relation to the gold sector. BACRIM stands for bandas criminales, or criminal gangs, while DTOs stands for Drug Trafficking Organisations.

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “Due Diligence in Colombia’s Gold Supply Chain – Overview,” OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas (Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2016), p. 25.

How knowledge exchange between the EU and LAC regions mitigates this problem:

Recognising the enormous socio-environmental impacts of their consumption, many European consumers have begun to question their behaviour and to attempt to become more ethical consumers. More structurally, some academics, think tanks, activists and citizens have begun to propose and advocate for alternative consumption and production methods, ranging from sustainable or fair-trade consumption to the conceptualization of a circular EU economy. However, many of these initiatives are Eurocentric and do not radically break with the hegemonic rationality of modernity and progress[xvi].

This inhibits more successful and equitable exchange of ideas with the LAC region, even though much wisdom can be gleamed from non-European ontologies and epistemologies. At the risk of overgeneralising and not wishing to romanticise American first nations, many pre-Hispanic cosmovisions prescribe systems of production within ecological limitations and stress the ontological unity of nature and humanity. By contrast, the European philosophical tradition clearly distinguishes between—and even contrasts the social and the natural worlds—obscuring their intimate interrelations. Many scholars and activists have emphasised that the transition to a more sustainable society requires fundamental philosophical shifts. Equitable knowledge and technology exchange programmes, for example in agro-ecological farming and renewable energy, could help shift the EU’s sustainability paradigm from that of ‘saving the environment’ to ‘being a constitutive element of the environment,’ while bolstering the autonomy of first nations.[xvii]

In Colombia, the bolstering of state management and the strengthening of institutions are vital in combating unlicensed mining. For example, the European precautionary and polluter pays principles could serve as guidance in improving the environmental protection and risk prevention protocols. This process needs to be complemented with more robust and universal enforcement. For example, the Colombian legal framework prohibits the dumping of substances harmful to the environment such as mercury. Moreover, a procedure for handling dangerous chemicals is well described in Decree 2222 of 1993 and Law 99 of 1993, which set the standards for obtaining an environmental license. Therefore, mechanisms for the effective execution and enforcement of these policies need to be established, alongside the strengthening of responsible institutions and a shift in prosecution practices. As Director of the Punto Medio think tank Álvaro Pardo argues, there is a failure in law enforcement instruments since the miners and operators are being jailed, instead of investors and mine owners.[xviii]

Beyond legislative changes and institution-building, the re-establishment of social structures is key in mitigating the effects of illegal mining. Attention and assistance to marginalised communities along with the legalisation of artisanal mining will be more effective than predominantly focusing on law enforcement. The European Union can contribute to rebuilding the social tissue of the Colombia’s rural areas by providing political, diplomatic and logistical support to the numerous peace-building and stabilisation programmes.

Conclusion:

Because the negative socio-environmental impacts of illegal mining originate from a multifaceted set of challenges, they will have to be addressed from several perspectives. A significant percentage of gold extracted in Antioquia finds its way into the globalised production processes that, amongst others, cater to the single largest consumer market: the EU. If European consumers were to engage in equitable knowledge exchange programmes with American pre-Hispanic cultures and adapt their consumption patterns to ecological limitations, gold’s global market dynamics would be affected. This would indirectly mitigate some of the socio-environmental damages. On the other hand, the Colombian government could integrate European environmental principles and aspire to adapt, execute, and enforce higher standards. It remains uncertain how Colombian mining policy will change as the new president of Colombia Ivan Duque, who took office on August 7, 2018, has yet to propose any significant changes to policies on illegal mining beyond more coercive enforcement measures. Knowledge exchange between the EU and LAC regions is thus an integral facet of a holistic approach to addressing socio-environmental impacts of illegal gold mining in Colombia.

References:

[i] Baptiste, B. et al., (2017) “Greening peace in Colombia,” Nature Ecology & Evolution 1, no. 4 (2017): 0102, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0102; McNeish, J. (2017), “Extracting Justice? Colombia’s Commitment to Mining and Energy as a Foundation for Peace,” The International Journal of Human Rights 21, no. 4: 500–516, https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2016.1179031; Svampa, M. (2015) “Commodities Consensus: Neoextractivism and Enclosure of the Commons in Latin America,” South Atlantic Quarterly 114, no. 1: 65–82, https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-2831290.

[ii] “Radiografía de los Conflictos Sociales del Sector Minero-Energético,” Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (blog), May 24, 2018, http://pares.com.co/2018/05/24/radiografia-de-los-conflictos-sociales-del-sector-minero-energetico/.

[iii] European External Action Service and European Commission- Directorate General for Development and Cooperation – Europaid, (2014) Multiannual Indicative Programme MIP 2014-2017 Colombia, Brussels: European External Action Service.

[iv] Ibarra Sanchez, D. (2017) “Illegal Gold Mining Fuels Violence in Colombia,” Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/10/illegal-gold-mining-fuels-violence-colombia-161005063014208.html.

[v] Ministry of Mines and Energy, (2011) Mining Census,   https://www.minminas.gov.co/censominero

[vi] Güiza, L. and Aristizabal, J. (2013) “Mercury and Gold Mining in Colombia: A Failed State,” Universitas Scientiarum 18, no. 1: 33–49.

[vii] Trianni, F. (2014) “A Day in The Life of An Illegal Miner in Colombia,” TIME, http://time.com/2818968/colombia-illegal-mining/.

[viii] See VI.

[ix] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, (2016) Due Diligence in Colombia’s Gold Supply Chain – Where Does Colombian Gold Go?, Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

[x] Bloomberg News, (2016) “Colombia’s ‘Blood Gold’ Turns up in Everything From Smartphones to Cars,” The Denver Post, https://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/18/colombia-blood-gold-smartphones-cars/; OjoPúblico, (2015) Dirty Gold: Chasing the trace of the London Bullion Market, http://ojo-publico.com/dirty-gold-chasing-the-trace-of-the-london-bullion-market/.

[xi] European External Action Service, (2018) Las Relaciones Económicas y Comerciales Entre Colombia y La Unión Europea: Cinco Años de Implementación del Acuerdo Comercial (2013-2017), Bogota: European External Action Service.

[xii] World Gold Council, (2017) Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2017, London: World Gold Council, https://www.gold.org/research/gold-demand-trends/gold-demand-trends-full-year-2017.

[xiii] Weaver, J. et al. (2018), How Drug Lords Make Billions Smuggling Gold to Miami for Your Jewelry and Phones, Miami Herald,

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article194187699.html.

[xiv] Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (2015), The Global E-waste Monitor 2014, Quantities, Flows, and Resources, United Nations University.

[xv] Deetman, S. et al. (2017), “Deriving European Tantalum Flows Using Trade and Production Statistics: European Substance Flow Analysis for Tantalum,” Journal of Industrial Ecology 22, no. 1: 166–79, https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12533.

[xvi] Escobar, A. (2004) “Beyond the Third World: Imperial Globality, Global Coloniality and Anti-Globalisation Social Movements,” Third World Quarterly 25, no. 1: 207–30, https://doi.org/10.1080/0143659042000185417; Martinez-Alier, J. et al. (2010), “Social Metabolism, Ecological Distribution Conflicts, and Valuation Languages,” Ecological Economics 70, no. 2: 153–58, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.09.024; Shaw, D. and Newholm, T. (2002), “Voluntary Simplicity and the Ethics of Consumption,” Psychology and Marketing 19, no. 2: 167–85, https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.10008.

[xvii] Escobar, A. (1998) “Whose Knowledge, Whose Nature? Biodiversity, Conservation, and the Political Ecology of Social Movements,” Journal of Political Ecology 5, no. 1: 53–82; Escobar, A. (1999), “After Nature: Steps to an Antiessentialist Political Ecology,” Current anthropology 40, no. 1: 1–30; Gudynas, E. (2011) “Desarrollo, Postextractivismo y ‘Buen Vivir,’” Pueblos, Desarrollo, Cooperación y Empresas Transnacionales, no. 69: 19-21; Leff, E. (2015) “The Powerful Distribution of Knowledge in Political Ecology,” in Perreault, T., Bridge, G. and McCarthy, J. (eds.) (2015), Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology, London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group; Sullivan, S. (2017) “What’s Ontology Got to Do with It? On Nature and Knowledge in a Political Ecology of the ‘Green Economy,’” Journal of Political Ecology 24: 217–42.

[xviii] Ebus, B. (2016), “Illegal Gold Mining in Colombia Is Destroying the Rainforest,” Newsweek, http://www.newsweek.com/2016/11/25/colombia-illegal-gold-mining-521717.html.