March 9th 2015
In the Peruvian desert many hours from the capital Lima, lies a small gold mining town by the name of Relave. In Relave families have depended on artisanal and small-scale mining since the 1980’s when economic hardship and conflict drove numerous families to settle as informal miners.
Starting out without basic infrastructure, they worked the tailings left by previous large-scale international mining operations and managed to transform their challenging situation over the years. Relave is now a 4,000-person town and an international exporter of ethical gold and silver. These achievements are mainly the fruit of the hard work, vision and commitment to responsible mining of the AURELSA Company that in 2012 obtained Fairmined Certification. As a Fairmined certified organization AURELSA has been able to export at a fair price and make important improvements to their mining organization and in the community.