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Gold Mining

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Submitted By stevenniubi
Words 1854
Pages 8
Name: Yimou Feng
Professor: Elaine Walker
Class: International Business and Global Social Responsibility (8:00-9:40)
03 December 2012
Gold mining
Section 1: Executive summary As a rare and valuable metal, gold used to be the currency all around the world. Although its position has been replaced, it also has a big market and huge demand. Because of the upgrade of technology and science, gold mining and gold industry developed quickly. In the following of this article, I will focus on gold mining and gold investment. For the gold mining, I will explore two main problems in gold mining—pollution and safety. For the gold investment, I will discuss if gold is useless for people to invest.

Section 2: Issue definition Firstly, every gold mining company, whether giant multinationals or small national companies, all need to face a very significant problem—pollution. During the mining process, it is impossible for mining organizations to avoid gaining some extra and useless product; such as some heavy metals, which are harmful to the local environment. If mining companies cannot deal with these gangues in right way, disaster may happen; especially in developing countries. There is an example. Arsenic (As) is one of the main gangue in gold mining. Arsenic is an extremely toxic substance, and it is hard to be eliminated. In China, gold mining organizations always use boxing dam and deeply burying to dispose Arsenic. But, actually, it cannot totally solve the hidden danger of environmental pollution. If torrential flood, earthquake or landslide happened, it may lead to disastrous environmental incidents (Zhou, 2011). 2006, in China Guizhou province, the mine waste dumps of Shuiyin Cave gold mine was broken. Arsenic leaked into local natural environment, which led to a terrible environmental pollution, and made local government lose 150 million RMB assets (Huang, 2006). Arsenic pollution is only a small part of gold mining pollution. The biggest pollution which is led by gold mining is water pollution. At the very beginning that people started mining gold, the water pollution was already became the worst environmental consequence of gold mining. “From California's Sierra Nevada in the 1850s to the lands of the Pemon in Venezuela today, people have ruined rivers by using high-pressure hoses to spray down the banks and sifting through the sediment for gold.”(Commodity Online, 2011) And the runoff flowed downstream, destroying plant and fish life. The problem is still exiting. The modern mining is even more destructive of water resources. For example, the gold industry in Nevada, where most gold in the U.S. is mined, the water systems around it are contaminated by cyanide and other processing chemicals, and the acid mine drainage that runs off exposed rock (Commodity Online, 2007). In macroscopic view, to mine gold, gold mining companies need to open up a huge place to work. They need to cut all trees around the mine. It can lead to losing of soil and water, and dust pollution. Also, using of the heavy equipment can aggravate air pollution (Zhou, 2011). Secondly, after I figured out the pollution problem, I would like to explore the safety problem. Actually, safety problem is a huge concept; even pollution problem can be included into safety problem. In the following article, I will aim at mine workers’ safety problem. Miner is a risky job, even if the mining organizations have already prepared. Because miners need to do borehole operation, the safety factor of the mine became very important. If the tunnel collapsed, working miners may lose their lives. Even giant multinational mining companies need to face this risk, let alone those small companies. According to the research, nearly 90% of the big mine accidents in the world were happened in China. In China, nearly 10000 people died per year because of the mine accidents (Mu, 2011). For example, the nearest mine accident happened in Luonan prefecture in 2012 December 3rd. Two miners died because of the tunnel collapsed (Yang, 2012). The biggest problem is the process of rough machining gold mines after mining. For centuries, mercury has been used to chemically separate gold from ore. It led to major public-health problems for miners and communities around mining districts. Mercury made miners sick since the 1849 gold rush. “During the California Gold Rush, 7,600 tons of mercury was released into local rivers and lakes, resulting in neurological disorders and deaths amongst people exposed to this deadly toxin.”(Commodity Online, 2010) Nowadays, “500,000 gold miners tested in Brazil, more than 30% showed mercury levels above the World Health Organization's tolerable limits.”(Commodity Online, 2010) Thirdly, after the introduction about the pollution and safety problem, it’s time to talk about the problem in economy. In 2012, a new theory was come out by Warren Buffett, that gold is a useless investment. Buffett thought that gold is not a part of currency; it is only a useless and unnecessary good. He didn’t admit the moneyness of gold. In his opinion, the reason why people investing gold is to changing dollar into gold to maintain the purchasing power of dollar (Zhou, 2012). According to the research, the real returns and inflation from 1900 to 2011 shows that the average returns of stock is 5.4% per year, but for gold, it is only 1.0% per year. The reason why gold performed well in bull market is because the stock market is in the period of bear market. And that’s because of the influence of financial crisis in last several years (Zhou, 2012).
Although Buffett’s theory maybe not right, as the most well-known investor in the world, his theory may have some influence in gold market. In another hand, if the theory is right, people will reduce the investment in gold, which can make the demand of gold decrease. Gold mining companies will lost their profit. But the result is based on suppose, the most significant problems that mining organizations need to solve are pollution and safety problems.

Section three: Contributing organizations The multinational mining companies I chose are Newmont, Barrick, Polyus Gold, and Newcrest. These four companies are all giant multinational mining organizations. I chose them because they did pretty well in one or two sides to solve pollution and safety problem. In the following article, I will specifically introduce the best part of each company did about the social responsibility. For the Newmont Company, it did well in mercury management. It has a system to managing and using mercury. Newmont does not use elemental mercury for processing at any operation. But mercury did exist naturally. There is an example. Mercury exists in ore at Newmont’s Yanacocha, Nevada and Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) operations, primarily as mercury sulfide (cinnabar). To deal with mercury, Newmont’s gold-recovery processes recover this naturally occurring mineral as elemental mercury, which can be toxic if not properly controlled (Our Environment Features, 2012). Another thing Newmont did that is admirable is their aim—“A workplace without injury”. Newmont focus on improvement led to the appointment of a Safety Task Force, comprised of eight Newmont leaders and two external subject matter experts (our values features, 2012). "Some might argue that a company as large as Newmont, involved in a business as risky as mining, should accept fatalities and injuries as an unfortunate part of the mining business," said Richard O'Brien, Newmont's president and CEO. "Our management team wholeheartedly rejects this notion and is fully committed to making Newmont the first mining company to prove this argument wrong." For the Barrick, they also tried their best to protect the environment, especially in saving water. The amount of water used for ore processing, mine cooling, dust suppression and other activities is closely monitored at Barrick’s properties. Water conservation opportunities are actively pursued. For example, recycling the water used for ore processing helps reduce water use. In order to reduce our use of fresh water, in some locations Barrick is able to use saline water, or water high in salt content, that is unsuitable for agricultural or domestic purposes. At some of our operations, water used for processing and mining is treated and discharged back to the environment under permit. These properties carefully monitor the discharged water for quality and quantity (Water Management, 2012). Polyus Gold did well in health and safety part. Their policy is really humanizative and strict. For example, “Encourage employees to timely eliminate and (or) effectively control health and safety hazards and to use personal protective equipment as and where required. Be in full compliance with applicable legal requirements relating to health and safety legislation.” (Health and Safety, 2012). The Newcrest is more like Polyus Gold. It also has a strict policy on health, safety and environment protection. Section four: Recommendations After I did a lot of research and know about the gold mining industry; I think for those giant multinational gold mining organizations, actually they really did a good job in environment protection. They also tried their best to reduce the risk about health and safety. But that’s not enough. Polyus Gold and Newcrest have great policy on environment and health and safety. I think they need to increase the power of monitoring. They also have to find a way to save resource, such as water. Maybe they can learn from Barrick. But, for those small gold mining companies, especially the companies in developing countries such as China; I think local government should increase the power of monitoring, and hit the companies which did not reach safety and environment level. For those developing countries, they’d better contract mining work to those experienced giant mining companies.

Work Cited

Newcrest. "Environment." Environment. Newcrest.com.au, 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.newcrest.com.au/sustainability/environmental>.

Polyus Gold. "Health and Safety." 24hgold.com. 24hgold.com, 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.24hgold.com/english/link_company.aspx?param=website>.

Barrick Gold. "About Us." Barrick Gold Corporation. Barrick.com, 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.barrick.com/responsibility/environment/default.aspx>.

Newmont Mining Corporation. "Working Diligently to Retire Mercury." Newmont.com. Newmont.com, 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.newmont.com/features/our-environment-features/Working-Diligently-to-Retire-Mercury>.

Newmont Mining Corporation. "A Workplace Without Injury." Newmont.com. Newmont.com, 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.newmont.com/features/our-values-features/A-Workplace-Without-Injury>

Zhou, Renjie. "Gold Mining." Sina.com.cn. Sina.com.cn, 6 May 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-05-06/230015488453.shtml>.
Mu, Wu. "People Died in Mine." Hi.baidu.com. Hi.baidu.com, 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://hi.baidu.com/evkpgexaaybaqsq/item/c140f037c409965d81f1a7d9>.

Yang, Guang. "Two People Died." Sina.com.cn. Sina.com.cn, 3 Dec. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://sx.sina.com.cn/news/s/2012-12-03/082634513.html>.

Commodity Online. "10 Problems That Gold Mining Faces." Rediff.com. Rediff.com, 13 July 2007. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jul/13gold.htm>.

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