13.06.2024 Sustainable gold mining: BGR publishes teaching material for vocational schools

Between 10 and 20 per cent of the gold mined worldwide comes from small-scale mining. An estimated 10 to 20 million people work in this sector. It therefore represents an important source of income, but at the same time bears various risks. For example, human rights and labour rights are violated during gold extraction and along the supply chain. The use of toxic chemicals causes massive environmental damage. The BGR has been making important contributions to solving the problems related to gold mining as part of their technical cooperation projects.

The BGR sectoral project “Raw Materials and Development” has now published a teaching material for vocational schools on the subject of “Gold Mining and Sustainability (External link)” together with the non-profit organisation EPIZ (Berlin).

The teaching material addresses vocational training in the sector of jewellery manufacturing, electronics/IT, banking and mining technology. It provides basic information on the topic of sustainable gold mining, including a “murder mystery game”. The aim is to educate future specialists about the conditions of gold mining and at the same time motivate them to make an active contribution to establishing responsible gold supply chains.

Several vocational schools participated in the development of the teaching materials and tested the materials beforehand. The materials were produced as part of the activities of the Forum Responsible Gold, which is coordinated by the BGR sectoral project “Raw Materials and Development” on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The Forum promotes the exchange of information and experience and raises public awareness on responsible gold supply chains.

Link (External link)