© Nigel Wright
August 26th 2014
Following several years of key growth and transformation within the Fairmined initiative, the Alliance for Responsible Mining is pleased to announce the first organization certified under the Fairmined Standard 2.0: COMUNIDAD AURIFERA RELAVE S.A. AURELSA, located in the Ayacucho department of Peru. This achievement is a significant demonstration of the miners’ recognition of the Fairmined standard as the best instrument to create opportunities for their businesses, families, and communities.
The Fairmined standard was developed by miners, supply chain actors, experts and other parties interested in supporting the sustainable development of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) communities through formalization and access to ethical markets. The standard contains requirements that the ASM organizations must meet to guarantee responsible mining practices: formal and legal mining operations, environmental care and protection, labor conditions, transparency, and socio-economic development. To obtain certification, the ASM organization receives an independent audit.
Compared to previous versions, April 2014’s Fairmined Standard 2.0 offers certified miners a variety of benefits, including access to new markets through different supply models, while maximizing the Premium that the mining organization receives to invest in the continuous improvement of its operations and the mining community.
“AURELSA decided to become Fairmined certified for various reasons, primarily because of the confidence that we have in ARM as an organization due to years of working together. We feel that ARM values our knowledge and experience as artisanal miners,” said Rosa Maria Reyes, General Director of AURELSA. “Cost is also very important in the financial sustainability of an artisanal mining business. We decided on the Fairmined label because the Premium is the highest of all the other certification schemes.”
The Fairmined certification is one of many recent achievements for the AURELSA mining company. In 2013 AURELSA, for the first time in Fairmined initiative, successfully completed its first direct export—from the mine to a group of North American jewelers and refiners part of the Fairmined initiative. Also this year, AURELSA’s certified gold was included in the world’s first coin made with Fairmined gold.
AURELSA’s interesting background and admirable overcoming of obstacles make its story worth knowing AURELSA began during the 1980s economic crisis, when a group of displaced families began to informally work in an abandoned mine concession in the south-central Peruvian desert. Over time, the miners formalized and eventually became a business that complied with all the demands of Peruvian regulations. These years were full of sacrifice, discouragement, hopes, and high-risk work in difficult conditions—both in the mining operations as well as the environment and quality of life for the miners and their families. They are now regionally recognized for their leadership in formal and responsible artisanal and small-scale mining. Currently the owners of the business are proud to be able to offer their children a both good primary education as well as higher education, which the miners previously could not access. They are further pleased to contribute to the dignity of the workers and their community by providing them safe work and the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty.
The AURELSA company was certified for the first time under the first version of the Standard in May 2012 and began to export through Fairmined authorized operator S&P Trading. We thank our local partners in Peru, Red Social and SONAMIPE, for all these years of working together to strengthen responsible Artisanal and Small-scale Mining and the Fairmined initiative. For more information about the Fairmined Initiative, visit www.fairmined.org
Download official press release in English and Spanish