Oro Verde Corporation: association of the main Common Councils of Tadó -Asocasan, and Condoto-Cocomacoiro, The foundation from Chocó Las Mojarras and the foundation Friends of Chocó. Chocó-Colombia

Composition of the organization: 194 certified Producing Family Units(UFP), the programme includes 2 grass-root organizations and two support organisations as well as 1300 miners, men and women, and the use of socially and environmentally sound methods. Check http://www.greengold-oroverde.org/ingles

Type of mine: Alluvial

Background
The initiative starts in 1999 when Amichocó, Cocomacoiro, Asocasan, Fundamojarras and the IIAP join efforts to develop production alternatives that put to hold the environmental devastation caused by the uncontrolled mining industry in this strategic ecosystem. After studying in-depth the reality in Chocó, the responsible mining industry, exercised with traditional methods, was identified as a viable option for the sustainable development of the region.  Through the commercialization of the Green Gold certified metals®, the program has created a demand in the fair and green markets for jewellery that uses metals extracted in an environmental and socially sound way.  This has permitted the positioning of the brand Green Gold® among jewellers of Colombia, Europe and United States who pay an additional premium on the international price.  The surplus generated in commercialization represents the collective premium for the Green Gold certified miners. The premium will be reinvested according to a premium reinvestment protocol which establishes that the mining communities decide on how these resources will be used.  Up to now the premium was put in a rotating fund used as working capital for the purchase of metals. 

Members’ rights, Volunteers
In Chocó the miners are owners of a plot of land where each exploits their own mine. Therefore they are not linked in terms of work to the Common Counsels that represent them.  Inside these counsels the miners have the right to participate giving their opinion or expressing their complaints and disagreements.  The program Green Gold, in turn, operates under a quality management system based on ISO norms.  In the system there are mechanisms for complaints and claims set against the development of the Green Gold program.

Payment to workers
The miners in the program receive a direct economic incentive by producing under the Green Gold certification criteria. To promote that they continue and improve their practices of artisan extraction that have proved to be sustainable through the years they receive in direct and individual form a premium of the 2% on top of the purchase price of gold from the Bank of the Republic of Colombia (and 1% for platinum).
The members of the community are owners of the surplus generated in commercialization, and they have decision power on the reinvestment of these resources.  Besides, they receive technical support in production issues (mining, forest and livestock) and training in business management, ethnic-territorial legislation, among others. 

Benefits the organization brings to the mining communities
The program includes the production problems of the families linked to the program from a multidisciplinary perspective; ii is comparable to how the Analogue Forestry program was created. Through its implementation the UFP combine the mining activities with the sowing of species destined to conservation and to economic sustainability.  In a parallel way, a process of design and development of livestock projects has started that diversifies the families’ activities, thus improving their income and nutrition. 

Mineral rights
The miners, being the owners of a plot of land where they exploit their own mine, work in an independent way.

Main needs
The initiative has faced a series of difficulties such as climatic instability, the geographical isolation and the precarious transport conditions in the area; the geographical conditions of the region that make the field work very costly.  At present Green Gold progresses in a pilot project of modernization for the certified miners to address the lack of tools and technologies and to increase the productivity in a sustainable way.  The main challenge is to progress in modernization and improve the living conditions and work of the miners in program, without compromising the environmental criteria. 

Commercialization
Through the Common Counsels of the municipalities, the Green Gold program purchases the metals from the miners in recollection centres located in each community. The Common Counsels permanently accompany the production development of the families and the Morajas foundation carries out an internal control of criteria compliance.  Then, through Amichocó, the metals are sold to jewellers in international markets who support the program by paying a premium of the 10% for gold and 5% for platinum on top of the international price.  As a consequence of a study on financial sustainability it was decided to increase the premium to 15% for both metals from April of 2008.  The surplus generated by the operation finance environmental and development programs for the whole community. 

Process of extracting the metal
The miners use artisan techniques anciently acquired by the afro-descendent communities that do not use chemicals such as cyanide and mercury and besides this, they include recovery of the vegetation on the plots that have been exploited.  Among these techniques they count several different panning techniques (gravel from the river), flow water method, hole technique and gouache or tunnel.

photo 1: Family unit Américo Mosquera Working in the mine Picture: Ronald de Hommel and Green Gold program.

Refining the metal
Refineries in Colombia are used to process the products required by some clients. For other the raw metals are exported and refined abroad by the refiner of their preference. 

Transport
The refinery takes care of the transportation of the metals from Chocó to the production plant.  The Green Gold ® metals always remain physically apart from any another metal. 

Main challenges faced in order to comply with the minimum requirements for the Standard Zero.

Social
Define and implement a structure in which the miners participate directly.

Economic
Identify technologies for optimizing the mineral recuperation (output).

Labour issues

Differentiation
The Green Gold TM are extracted in an artisan way with ancestral techniques that are socially and environmentally sound, which guarantees a sustainable use of natural resources and protection of the afro-Colombian communities in the pacific area in Colombia, one of the most exuberant and bio diverse ecosystems of the planet .

At local level, the miners men and women belong to small common counsels and together those form the Greater Common Counsels of each municipality, which are members of the Green Gold Corporation.

The Green Gold members are part of ARM, the Federación Nacional de Mineros Artesanales and the Federación Latinoamericana de Minería Artesanal.

photo 2: Example of the rich ecosystem of  Chocó. Picture: Green Gold program.

This estimation of the productive capacity contemplates a factor of correction of 70% due to the lack of mining research, environmental conditions and geographical dispersion of the communities.