Gold Mining's Environmental Impact: The True Cost of Your Jewelry

Gold has long been a symbol of status, wealth, and power, but beneath its polished surface has been a less than glittering legacy of environmental devastation. While the allure of gold remains strong, the ecological toll of its extraction, particularly through unregulated or poorly regulated mining practices, has been profound, long-lasting, and far-reaching.

What Is "Dirty Gold"?

"Dirty gold" refers to gold that has been mined outside of industry regulations using environmentally destructive and socially irresponsible methods. It often involves informal or illegal operations that fail to comply with worker safety regulations, environmental protections, or ethical labor practices. Dirty mining operations frequently put short-term profits ahead of long-term sustainability, leading to myriad ecological consequences and human health issues.

In contrast, regulated gold mining, while still environmentally impactful, adheres to set environmental standards, implements mitigation technologies, and often includes plans to restore areas that have been negatively impacted by gold mining. Certified gold initiatives aim to reduce the ecological and socio-economic harm by promoting best practices in mining. Nevertheless, dirty gold continues to flood the global market, especially from regions where government and regulatory oversight is weak or nonexistent.

• The Impact of Dirty Gold on Communities
• Fairmined Certified Gold

The Ecological Impact of Gold Mining

Gold mining can be extremely damaging to our environment, and open-pit mining, which involves removing large amounts of soil and rock in order to access ore deposits, destroys natural landscapes, disrupts ecosystems, and produces large quantities of waste. In addition to the destruction of land, gold mining has long-term consequences related to soil fertility, water resources, and air quality. The collective environmental damage extends beyond the immediate mining site, affecting downstream communities and ecosystems near and far through chemical runoff, sedimentation, and deforestation.

• Dirty Gold Destroys Lives and the Environment
• The True Cost of Gold
• The Environmental Impact of Gold Mining
• The Environmental Disaster That Is the Gold Industry

Water Pollution

Gold mining contributes to water contamination, as the mining and extraction process often involves washing ore with water and chemicals to separate the gold, creating runoff containing harmful chemicals that leach into the soil and into the water table. Rivers, lakes, and groundwater sources near mining operations are at an elevated risk of being contaminated with heavy metals, including arsenic, mercury, and lead, all of which are poisonous.

In artisanal and small-scale mining operations, mercury is commonly used to extract gold from ore. When released into waterways, mercury undergoes chemical transformations that increase its toxicity and make it more easily absorbed by aquatic organisms, entering the food chain and posing serious health risks to humans and wildlife.

• How Gold Mining Can Affect Water Quality
• Mining and Water Pollution
• How to Buy Gold With Less Mercury
• Heavy Metal Pollution From Gold Mines
• Mercury Poison in Gold Miners
• Raising Awareness of the Dangers of Using Mercury in Mining Operations

Solid Waste Pollution

Gold mining generates massive amounts of solid waste in the form of tailings, fine particles left after gold has been extracted from ore. These tailings are often stored in large dams or reservoirs, which have the potential to collapse or leak, releasing contaminants into the environment. These waste materials may contain harmful chemicals such as cyanide and sulfides. When exposed to air and water, they can produce acid mine drainage, a highly acidic and toxic mixture that seeps into surrounding soils and waterways, continuing the environmental degradation long after mining operations have ceased.

• Old Gold Mines Present Potential Risks Even Today
• Legacy Mines Cause Continual Harm
• Mine Waste
• Mine Tailings

Heap Leaching

Heap leaching is a common gold extraction method that involves stacking crushed ore into large piles and spraying them with a leaching solution, typically cyanide. The solution seeps into the heap of crushed ore, dissolving gold into a metal-rich liquid, which is then collected at the base and processed to extract the gold. This technique is cost-effective, but it comes with significant environmental risks. Cyanide is highly toxic, and accidental spills or leaks can poison soil, water, and wildlife. In developing regions with minimal health and safety regulations in place, the danger of heap leaching is made even greater by inadequate containment infrastructure and a lack of oversight.

• Gold Mines Harm Public Health and the Environment
• Heap Leaching: What Is it, and Why Is it Used in the Yukon?
• Heap Leaching

The Release of Toxins

Toxic substances are a hallmark of gold mining. Beyond mercury and cyanide, gold mining operations release a cocktail of other dangerous chemicals, including arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and sulfuric acid. These toxins pose immediate threats to miners and local communities and have long-lasting environmental effects. Even in areas where gold mines have been closed or abandoned, residual toxins can continue to leach into the environment for decades. The buildup of toxic substances in the living tissue of plants and animals further increases the risk of ecosystem disruption and human exposure.

• Deadly Chemicals Released During Gold Mining

Deforestation and Loss of Habitat

Many gold mining operations take place in biodiverse tropical forests, including the Amazon basin, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa. To access gold deposits, miners must clear large portions of forest, leading to rapid deforestation and the loss of critical habitats for countless species. This deforestation fragments precious ecosystems, disrupts migration routes, and reduces the capacity of Earth's forests to absorb carbon dioxide, which, in turn, worsens climate change. The removal of trees also increases soil erosion and alters local hydrology, compounding the damage and creating ecological and infrastructural issues that communities may be ill-equipped to manage.

• Mining Impacts Up to a Third of Rainforests

The Loss of Biodiversity

The cumulative effects of gold mining, including habitat destruction, water and soil pollution, and toxic chemical release, create an uninhabitable environment for plants and animals. Marine ecosystems are especially vulnerable, as harsh contaminants can kill fish, disrupt reproduction, and wipe out vital food chains. On land, mining also disrupts the delicate balance of ecosystems, driving some species, including those that are already endangered, to extinction. In areas that are exceptionally rich in unique species, these losses are particularly devastating and, more often than not, irreversible.

• Mining Is Pushing Into Critical Rainforests and Protected Areas

The Most Impacted Areas

Dirty gold mining is most prevalent in areas with weak governance, limited environmental regulation, and high poverty rates. Latin America, especially Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, has seen extensive damage due to dirty gold mining, particularly in the Amazon rainforest. Southeast Asia, parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and Papua New Guinea have also faced severe environmental degradation from unregulated gold mining. In these areas, mining most often occurs in remote regions where enforcement is difficult and local communities rely on mining operations for their survival, despite its steep environmental costs. These operations usually operate outside the law, evade taxation, and leave behind environmental disasters with no accountability.

While gold may glitter, the environmental costs of unregulated and irresponsible gold mining are far from beautiful. But through greater transparency, stricter enforcement, consumer awareness, and an increased demand for ecological and sustainable mining practices, the trajectory of the gold industry can be kept on the right track and held accountable for its environmental impact. The market is the driving force for gold, and supporting environmental protection initiatives is critical in killing off dirty gold mining and elevating sustainable operations that value our environment at least as much as they do profit. Through continued support, we can help shift the market toward sustainability and justice.

• Illegal Gold Mining in South America
• The Environmental Impact of Gold Mining in the U.S.
• The Impact of Mining Gold Along the Amazon River

Additional Resources

• Switzerland's Fight Against Dirty Gold
• The Impact of Mining in Australia
• Assessing the Environmental Impact of Gold Production From Double Refinery Ore in Large-Scale Facilities
• Panning for Solutions to the Challenges of Informal Gold Mining
• Can We Mitigate the Environmental Impacts of Mining?
• 433 Gold Bead Bracelet Stack
• Regulations and Guidelines Related to Ore Mining