Suriname Spring 2006
During our first few days in Paramaribo, we met with officials at our embassy and NIMOS (Suriname’s environmental protection agency), who welcomed us and offered support for the project.
A little fish from the Loricariidae family, who joined us for a swim in the Tapanahony river.
We also spent time with Robbie Kwasi, a Maroon gold miner who attended our first round of workshops last December.
Back then, I liked it that he was initially skeptical and challenging of us, and I was thrilled to finally see him smile when he first caught gold with our sluice.
Robbie was cooperative with my invasive interview and candid about mercury usage and operational costs. He and his fellow miners use and release as much mercury as they win in gold.
Meeting with gold miner Robbie Kwasi in Paramaribo.
Having heard that mercury was harmful, they would try to block the vapors with leaves when they burned amalgam. He asked great questions about mercury so he can share information about mercury’s path and effects with his fellow miners. He’s also a pastor at a church in Godo Olo, so I’m excited to have a verbal leader engaged on this issue.
Robbie embraced our mission. He agreed to install a Cleangold adaptation on his current operation and stop using mercury in his pits and sluice boxes. He also agreed to let the system become a working demonstration site where other miners can visit and learn.
Unfortunately, he was detained in the city for family reasons and couldn't join us in the field, but he has since installed Cleangold with the help of our guide and country representative, Erick Lobo.
We then traveled to the village of Godo Olo, holding workshops with the women who invited us when we met them last December. They have no income and won’t go in the mining areas as it’s too dangerous. During our first workshop with the ladies, they took us to the river where a little stretch of bank is known to contain fine gold.
Walking to the river for our first ever women’s workshop.
It was a merry scene, because all of the ladies immediately caught gold, while children and other villagers washing, fishing or playing joined us. Suddenly, a big man emerged on the banks above us and boomed: "Are you just testing or are you mining?" The ladies said they were just testing and the man said "Good! Because if you are mining you will be kicked out of the village!"
The women were naturals on the equipment and they agreed to offer Cleangold training to all who seek it after we’re gone. On the outskirts of the village near their garden plots, they have little creeks containing fine gold where they plan to work, (along with some other secret places they weren’t sharing with us!) They agreed to give progress reports to Rachael van der Kooye, our project liaison there.
The next morning, our guide Erick went out to buy bread, and on his return he reported a rumor was going around the village that we were from a big foreign mining company, and as soon as we found gold we would push them off their lands! Eric assured everyone we were just Americans with clean mining tools and they said “Oh good, they’re just Americans!” (Yay!)
Although the ladies caught gold quickly, we had to emphasize that they also needed to collect more than the sprinklings of magnetite (black sands) they snagged on their first dips, which is often found with fine gold deposits and one of the materials required to make the sluice work.
David isolates a large particle from the magnetite; caught quickly by a woman with her new Prospector’s sluice.
The Aucan word for black sands is “podocaca.” Breaking the word down, Podo means desirable, alluring and enchanting. Caca means caca. It’s a wonderful word, because it precisely defines black sands—it’s what you’re looking for to find gold, but it’s a nasty mess trying to get the fines separated from it, which is why miners have been using mercury.
We made such a noise about collecting podocaca, kids would chase after David and Erick as they walked through the village, laughing and yelling “Hey! Mr. Podocaca!” One day, we walked past a little boy sitting on a freshly tilled, raised garden box. He grinned, spread his arms wide and said “This is MY podocaca!”
It was wild walking through some areas of the village as the ground was similar to the Oregon beaches in wintertime, with stringers of black sand running through the pounded paths. After a heavy rainstorm, one of the ladies told us she set our smallest sluice in the crevice of a little, weathered rut outside her front door and caught gold!
During our time in Godo Olo, we made our presence known on the Maroon radio station and met with over a dozen miners who had either attended or heard about our last workshops. We gave additional training on equipment and told them Robbie Kwasi would soon be installing a scaled up demonstration operation at his site.
Gerda Kwasi demonstrates her skills in collecting podocaca.
All the miners knew Robbie and said it was a good decision to give it to him because they trusted him and said he would share his knowledge. Most of the miners wanted to buy our large sluice inserts with the intention of re-working abandoned areas (to capture fine gold lost from previous mining), but I declined to sell to them.
Since their tailings also contain mercury and the miners didn't have retorts to help capture vapors lost during burning, this would've just re-introduced mercury to the environment (and exposed themselves at the same time). We were supposed to have had Rickford from WWF-Guianas accompany us to the field to equip and train miners on retorts, but thieves had burglarized his house right before our departure. Since his house was still unsecured, he had to stay behind and guard his remaining things.
So we didn't sell to the miners, but we gave them additional training and promised Rickford would come in the future with retort workshops so they could more safely learn how to re-work their tailings.
The ladies are quite comfortable with their new sluices.
We then flew into to the Benzdorp region, near the border of French Guiana. Our host and concession owner is a Surinamer, who allows miners to work his lands under strict regulations in exchange for a portion of the profits.
David was able to successfully install his Cleangold adaptations on a soft rock mine, completely replacing their mercury coated copper plates and recovering unamalgamated gold particles 20 times smaller than we’d ever seen (a relative term, since this gold was below the limit of visibility). David also installed a system at an alluvial miner's operation. After attending our first workshops, a miner named Gio courageously agreed to go completely mercury free for three days, risking his gold yield by using only Cleangold to back up his operation.
David installs Cleangold plates at a soft rock hammer mill mine in Benzdorp.
Typically, miners will add mercury to their pit and the top of the box every day in the belief this will capture more fine gold, then they use mercury to amalgamate the final concentrates and recover gold by heating the amalgam to burn off the mercury. At this site, they usually recover 100 grams of gold in three days (using equal amounts of mercury), so 100 grams of gold was our target.
The Cleangold adaptation went at the end of the miners' sluice box, to capture whatever they missed. At the end of the Cleangold plates, Gio installed a box with mercury in it (because he wanted to see if there was anything we might miss!).
At the end of the three day test, miners removed the top section of the box and let David do the recovery with Cleangold. They had 110 grams of gold. David also recovered about 100 grams of mercury that had been in the pit from previous mining activities. There were no losses in the miner's mercury box at the end of our plates. Success!
Photomicrograph of gold, amalgam and free mercury recovered by Cleangold from the test shown above, Note the oxide coatings on most of the gold particles which resist amalgamation, resulting in significant losses from the mercury coated copper plates used at this site. (nominal magnification 100X
However, was the area they worked for our tests richer or poorer than usual? We can’t know, but it convinced Gio to keep the Cleangold system and stop adding mercury to his pit and sluice box.
We also conducted two major workshops with the 25 equipment owners on the concession, who have 7- 10 miners working under them. Initially, I was unsure if they were actually impressed or just being polite, but during the second workshop, held on site at the mercury-free installation, there was a lot of excitement and discussion, and the miners took all the additional sluices we’d brought for further testing. Updates by the concession owner’s analyst are forthcoming.
Because of the high cost of mercury in Suriname ($100 US/kg), miners are motivated to find alternatives. Discussions with equipment owners like Robbie and Gio revealed their margin of profit is small and tenuous, and any method that puts more gold in their pocket as well as reduces their overhead (no more mercury costs) will be embraced. Now that he has learned how to use a retort and fully understands mercury’s risks, Robbie is even more motivated to advise other miners on clean methods.
Brazilian mine workers doing a cleanup on Gio’s sluice box, in preparation for a mercury-free Cleangold test.
By the time we returned to Paramaribo, our workshops with the ladies had already been covered in the press (thanks to Rachael!). I produced a DVD containing video highlights from our fieldwork for distribution to the media. We held a press conference and were featured in their newspapers, radio and TV.
We became big celebrities with the staff at our hotel, who finally understood we were doing more than checking in bedraggled then entertaining a myriad of people by the pool. The manager said it was nice to see foreigners coming in who wanted to help Suriname.
Since our return to the US, Rickford from WWF got his home secured and trained Robbie and Erick on retorts. Robbie is sincerely digging his. Erick and Robbie also went to Sela Creek and built a Cleangold system at Robbie’s site to serve as a training model. More installations are underway.
Benzdorp workshop at Gio’s site where a Cleangold adaptation to a conventional sluice box was installed.
Also since our return, the director of Grassalco (Suriname's state-owned mining company) has contacted Rachael and Erick to conduct Cleangold workshops for artisanal miners who are using mercury on the outskirts of their mine site. Though it’s likely we won’t be there, it is a welcome experiment to see how well we’ve trained our trainers.
Erick is back out in the field building Cleangold adaptations with the miners from Sela and Taso Creek. Miners from neighboring French Guiana and Guyana have been purchasing equipment and are now testing Cleangold.
Tragically, Suriname was devastated by record-breaking floods in May, which caused extensive damage to homes, schools and other buildings in the interior. More than 25,000 people were affected and now have to rely on government food aid to survive the coming six to nine months, as over 70 percent of their crops were destroyed.
I finally heard from the ladies via Rachael, who survived the flood and are doing well. Rachael wrote: “The children and women of Godo Holo sent greetings and want to see you soon again, so that they can show you the results.”
Pictured above, a sample of David’s cleanup from the alluvial test. Below, a close up of fine gold, amalgam and free mercury recovered. Although no mercury was used during our tests, Cleangold recovered mercury left in the pit from previous mining.
Gio in Benzdorp is continuing tests and allowing our adaptation to be used as a demonstration model. Last we heard, he has not purchased additional mercury for his operations.
A terrific article about Suriname recently appeared in New York Times Magazine. Titled: "Tumble in the Jungle," I will post it here when and if I get permission, but you should be able to read it if you do a web search including the title and publication.
All the children adored Erick Lobo, our guide and translator for the Tapanahony trips. Eric now conducts workshops in our absence.
There is a burgeoning movement underway to offer fair trade gold and jewelry using clean methods to consumers.
The next time you shop for jewelry, ask if they offer or support fair trade gold. As consumers, we have the power to help change the way gold is produced.
Gio (rhymes with hero), who allowed us to test at his site.
To learn more about reforms in artisanal and small scale mining (ASM) as well as sources for where you can buy fair trade gold and jewelry, please keep checking our Reading Room. If you have any sites or resources to recommend, please contact us.
David demonstrates to the children of Godo Olo the proper technique for changing into a wet suit in public.
Gran Tangi to the children of Godo Holo for their help in spreading the word about podocaca!
Thanks to World Bank’s Development Marketplace for our funding and our primary advisors there: Jason George and Michael Corlett.
Thanks to David Plath, Erick Lobo, Rachael van der Kooye, Theresa Elder and the Artminers board, Rickford Vieira and WWF-Guianas, Henk Naarendorp, Joe Starr, everyone else I thanked on the first report and above all, the artminers and citizens of Suriname who took care of us and are supporting our efforts. We’re scheduled to return in October 2006, if not sooner.
