The Earthbeat Foundation

We use with Maren Jewelery exclusivelyrecycled gold. This means that we have decided against newly won gold. However, in order to do something for positive change in the gold industry, we support the Earthbeat Foundation with 3% of our annual profit.

TheEarthbeat Foundation was founded in 2012 with a clearly defined goal: the team around founder Guya Merkle wants to support the legal, safe, sustainable and environmentally friendly use of gold as a raw material and to end new gold mining. Because how harmful gold mining is for people and the environment, what long-term risks and burdens it puts on the earth is really difficult to accept. The initiative has therefore formulated a motto that should serve as a model for its work: strengthen the circular economy in order to conserve natural resources and thus secure the basis of life for future generations. A vision that we at Maren Jewelery also want to share!en!

How can gold mining be brought into harmony with nature and people? circular economyt to strengthen means thaturban mining to force, i.e. the extraction of gold from old electronic devices or the recycling of old gold in order to let it migrate back into the production cycle, so that the new mining of gold becomes superfluous in the long term.

But what happens to all the people who work in the gold mines when no more gold has to be mined?e

The Earthbeat Foundation is reaching out to the estimated 80 million people who depend on mining for their livelihood through a 5-goal plan to provide them with a new livelihood.

The former, abandoned mine sites are being converted to enable new uses, households are being strengthened in order to be able to guarantee a medium income level, sustainable investments are being made so that independent, independent existences can be founded, educational opportunities are being promoted in order to help people to give a basis on which they can build their new life emancipated and the community is promoted to enable learning together.

We are happy to do a little interview with the founder of the Earthbeat Foundation to give her the chance to present her vision.

Photo: Eric Freeden

When I was in Peru to look at conventional small gold mining mines, I realized relatively quickly that I didn't want to accept it like that. It was one thing with the label of using ethically correct resources. However, I knew that that would not be enough.

As an industry, we have to change something together and that's why I wanted to found an initiative that can make this possible. If you focus on urban mining, that's great and, in my opinion, also the future, but you still have to work where the problems are greatest, and these are the communities that depend on gold mining. That's why I wanted to create alternatives to gold mining and give the whole thing a form that everyone from the industry can take part in.

That always depends on the community. We do not see our work as classic development aid, but as a partnership with the local people. You decide what you would like to build. Most of the time, these are areas that already exist but cannot be professionalized without a strong partner at your side. This is how the beekeeping project came about in the pilot project in Uganda. People had already tried their hand at beekeeping, it just didn't want to work properly. With the foundation as a partner, they were able to do professional training, set up more beehives and also sell the honey they produced.

That we manage to handle the raw material gold so consciously that we can actually only obtain it from urban mining. Enough gold has been mined, we just need to change the way we deal with it and apply it in a circular way. Gold is always gold and cannot be used up. I would wish that we could manage to think more about sharing this raw material. Of course we have to ensure that people who have been employed in gold mining for lack of alternatives can create sustainable and long-term sources of income.