Mining recycling circular economies Change at the grassroots level

hello everyone

i want to start this conversation by

saying that

for so many years mining has allowed us

to develop the society as we know it

from the stone age and the first uses of

rocks for the development of tools

to the cars that we ride

and the cell phones that we use every

day mining is present

in every object that’s around us

sometimes when we think about mining we

don’t know what that is

sometimes it can get confused with

cryptocurrency processes

the truth is that mining is an industry

that allow us to develop all the things

that’s around us

and provides all the raw materials for

new technologies

from the lithium used in electric cars

to the rare earth elements required in

the production of solar panels

however in destruction of such needed

materials

mining creates impacts for people

the environment and future generations

but as human beings we’re constantly

affecting the world

with our daily actions generating trash

driving fossil fuel powered engines

or just using technology

let’s do something because i i wanna i

wanna

gauge please raise your hand those of

you who have unrate emails in your inbox

because let’s be honest there’s the kind

of people in this world the one who read

emails and the ones who don’t

well not that much people but that’s

good that’s good

just by receiving emails every day

we’re accounting for more than 200

pounds of carbon footprint

a year per person

we’re affecting the world just by being

here

and mining is not the exception mining

also contributes to environmental

impacts

this right here it’s what we called mind

tailings

the mind healings are the impacts

generated by mining

some of the impacts

but it’s very important this mine tail

is because these minetails are the

by-products

of the physical and chemical processes

required to obtain the different metals

that humans demand every day

different kinds of metals at different

concentrations may be found in these

mind healings creating a huge concern

regarding their disposal and

more than 7 billion tons a year

are produced worldwide and we need to do

something about it

but first let me introduce you to

zoraida

she is a minor a small scale minor and

she wakes up

every day to provide for herself and her

husband

who’s ill she’s 65 years old

and every day she works to the mine she

goes to the mine

to try to get some gold so she can pay

her bills

and get something to eat like her

there are many women and men working in

these exact same conditions

trying to provide something for their

families

and as you can see here this video shows

how people are hand picking gold with

very rudimentary equipment

this is what we call artisanal small

scale gold mining

and i want to talk a little bit about

this because this is very important

artisanal and small scale

gold mining or asgm as it’s well known

in the world

generally it is defined as an economic

activity

that is done with very rudimentary

equipment

or small machinery it’s a very important

economic in developing countries

and it the main income for more than 40

million

people around the world in more than 70

countries

gold prices and informal operations

make of this activity and very um

interesting and interactive

livelihood for the rural poor

and is if we’re talking about impact

mind healings also comes in these are

the mind tailings generated by minors

in asgn communities for many years

communities have

disposed of these mine tailings close to

rivers and streams

creating a huge concern regarding their

disposal

the point is and this is a good question

have they done something to solve the

problem

and the answer is yes they have

through recycling they’ve been helping

out the world

and communities like soraidas have been

trying to develop strategies

to recycle mine tailings into

construction materials

and i want to stop here for a while

because i want to explain this graph

right here this graph was taken from the

world economic forum in 2018

and this big arrow right here represents

the economy

the green side represents the incomes

and the red side represent the outcomes

the incomes to the economy account for

more than 100 billion tons a year

that are produced in crops biomass

mining and then we have the outcomes the

outcomes is that what we what we require

at societies

uh all the societal needs as they call

it

but there’s a huge gap right here and

it’s what

is waste and mining is accounting for

seven

point um four

billion tons just in waste

and there’s this arrow this hour it’s

very important because this arrow is

giving us the recycling

only 8.6

is being recycled worldwide every year

so like that and communities like

herrers are

trying to help in this recycling

but the question is how good are we

recycling a society

and just in 2015 from 2015

to 2017 the resources entering the

economy

increased but the recycling decreased

so we’re supposed to thicken the arrow

of recycling and we’re reducing it and

there’s a problem

but communities like zoraida they’re

trying to

fill that gap and for many years now

asgm have tried to turn those mind

healings into construction materials

they’re recycling them

because that’s very important for them

and they

they they’ve been doing this for several

reasons of course the first one

is formalization and by formalization i

mean legality

they want to get legal they want to be

part of the system they want to be

part of the government and the economy

second

they’ve been increasing their

environmental awareness they’ve been

creating

more workshops they’ve been learning

more thanks to communities to

universities ngos and other entities

and they try to create a different

livelihood different from mining

they’re trying to create more income

from different livelihoods

here all of this

have taken us to the point that

now we’re talking about a social driven

change

and it has triggered several chain

reactions the first one

now they want to understand the buying

process they want to know

how these construction materials can be

sell

but also they’re trying to look for

different technologies and how they can

process and recycle these new

tailings to turn them into construction

materials

and at the same time they’re trying to

reduce hazards

and everything under the scope of the

environmentally friendly

perspective this

quote was made by soraida

and i want to share that with you guys

because for me it’s one of the most

important things

perseverance makes us grow the most

important

escambiar para mejor futuro the most

important thing

is to change for a better future if

soraida is doing something

if communities like zoraida around the

world are doing something to recycle

to improve their way of lives we can do

something too

and the question is what can we do

to close the gap in our lives maybe for

instance

erasing the emails that you don’t read

thank you very much

you