SEF Canada is thrilled to have won an international competition worth US$200,000 as part of a team led by Georgia-based Mercer University.
The august team created an affordable and sustainable clean technology to remove the toxicity risk from artisanal gold mining as practiced by indigenous peoples around the world and won Top Prize in the Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge Global Competition.
ASGM (Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining) is a vital source of income for some 40 million people in the world’s poorest communities, yet this type of mining is rife with complications to human and ecological well-being. The most deadly part of the process is the toxic mercury pollution which is discarded into the environment and ultimately the waterways.
“It is a deadly poison, as we know, and it also has devastating impacts on deforestation, biodiversity loss and man-made atmospheric mercury contamination,” says Suzette McFaul, founder and president of SEF Canada, noting the prize money will help the Mercer team further develop solutions to eliminate mercury pollution. “This is a fantastic development and a big leap forward for all of us who have been working in this area.”
The competition recognizes innovative solutions for transforming ASGM to protect the environment and awarded a total of US$750,000 in prizes.
“It's important because for 25 years we have worked with indigenous and local communities in South America and other places to remove toxins like mercury from their hand mining process,” says McFaul. “This is a great opportunity and with Mercer University we prevailed against entries from 42 countries.”
McFaul says the process, “Mercury Capture Systems for ASGM Gold Shops,” was led by an illustrious team at Mercer along with other top scientists at Centro de Innovación Científica Amazóniva, Wake Forest University’s Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, Duke University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Toronto.
Together they created a mercury capture system to remove dangerous elemental mercury vapor emitted during the amalgam burning process during the initial and final stages of gold extraction and refinement. The vapor circulating in the air of gold shops are deadly, cumulative toxins leading to thousands of premature deaths.
Moreover, McFaul says, it means miners can earn more money using the process while working in safer conditions for themselves and their natural environment.
“What an amazing experience,” said Dr. Adam Kiefer, Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Mercer. “We have been working on the Mercury Capture System for almost 10 years, and to have others see the potential of our invention and acknowledge its promise towards a cleaner future for ASGM is a true honor.”
About the Competition
Conservation X Labs, a technology and innovation company that creates breakthroughs and empowers innovators to build ventures that revolutionize conservation, is leading and administering the Challenge. Members of the Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge Global Coalition include the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Microsoft, Centro de Innovación Científica Amazónica, Delve, Conservation International, The Tech Interactive, World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, Andes Amazon Fund, Amazon Conservation Association, Levin Sources, Pan American Development Foundation, Water, Environment and Human Development Initiative, Resolve, Mongabay, Pure Earth, and the Chambers Federation.