Resources

In Uganda, women miners partnering with the planetGOLD project are demonstrating how inclusive leadership, formalization initiatives and responsible gold mining practices can strengthen livelihoods while protecting local communities and the environment for generations to come.

The planetGOLD programme works to make small-scale gold mining safer, cleaner, and more profitable from mine to market—by closing the financing gap, supporting formalization, and connecting miners with mercury-free technology and formal markets. 

A major barrier to the transition away from mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining is the typical lack of formalization in the sector. The planetGOLD programme is piloting innovative and holistic approaches to formalization, such as Jurisdictional and Landscape Approaches.

The number of artisanal and small-scale gold miners in Côte d'Ivoire has steadily grown for the past two decades. Although mercury use is common in these operations and many face barriers to operating formally, the planetGOLD project is working to help overcome these challenges and bring artisanal miners into the formal economy.

The GEF-funded planetGOLD programme works in partnership with governments, the private sector, and artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) communities with the objective of eliminating mercury from the supply chain of gold produced by ASGM. Watch the video to learn more.

This report provides a cross-programmatic assessment of the first phase (2018-2025) of the planetGOLD programme, which comprised nine country-level projects as well as a global coordination project.

Danger doesn't always look dangerous. Sometimes it is hiding in fish, in face cream, even in the air. Mercury. For thousands of years, humans have put mercury to work. Ancient alchemy, rituals, gold mining, batteries. It travels through the air and water. It lingers. it turns into methylmercury, slips into the food chain and into us. But this is not a horror story. This is a comeback story.

The annex to the present note sets out a report on activities undertaken within the Global Mercury Partnership of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) during the period from January 2024 to July 2025.

The Uganda National Association of Community and Occupational Health (UNACOH), with support from the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and the Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG), is training miners in mercury-free gold extraction using gravity concentration technology.

The planetGOLD newsletter shares updates from a global effort to make artisanal and small-scale gold mining safer and more responsible. Each issue highlights project milestones, mercury-free technologies, policy progress, and stories from miners and communities working toward a cleaner gold sector.

The growing demand for minerals amplifies risks of crime, corruption and supply chain instability. A global push for renewable energy technologies like electric cars and wind turbines brings benefits for the environment and economic opportunities for countries along the supply chain.

The Role of Gold Processing Plants in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining report explores the potential role of gold processing plants in driving the sustainable formalization, legitimization, and professionalization of artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) value chains.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury recognizes the interconnections between mercury pollution and biodiversity loss and underscores the need for coordinated action to protect ecosystems and human health.

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The document proposes priority actions for health, food and water security, and was developed with input from traditional communities and regional environmental experts

Published monthly, the Minamata Convention Updates provides the latest updates on work to protect human health and environment from the harmful effects of mercury.

This document highlights the importance of developing well designed, scientifically valid and clearly communicated mercury monitoring plans that can generate robust and reliable data. The data can be used to improve our understanding of the dynamic of mercury around artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sites and be used to generate prediction scenarios.

In the context of Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity taking place next week in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November 2024, we would like to highlight how global community is advancing the agenda to reduce and eliminate mercury and associated impacts on biodiversity.

Research Brief - L'éducation et la distribution d'équipements permettent d'améliorer les connaissances sur le mercure et l'utilisation de la cornue dans les communautés d'exploitation aurifère artisanale et à petite échelle au Sénégal.

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Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a significant economic sector, employing 20 million people across 80 countries and producing up to 20% of the world's gold supply.

The Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, in collaboration with the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) and with financial support from the European Union, launches Minamata Tools, a set of interactive training modules designed to explain the Convention and assist in the fight against mercury pollution.

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is crucial to the livelihoods of close to 20 million people in over 80 countries, including 4-5 million women, mainly in rural areas with limited alternative economic prospects, particularly in developing countries.

The overarching goal of this handbook is to establish a common knowledge base on the impacts of mercury use in the artisanal mining sector on human health and the environment among all the stakeholders involved in or connected with artisanal gold mining.

The publication explores "opportunities for generating co-benefits through coherent implementation of the Minamata Convention and Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework".

Check out this infographic to learn more about how toxic mercury impacts biodiversity and human health all around the world.

From human-made sources, this highly hazardous chemical accumulates in many ecosystems, such as tropical forests, mangroves, oceans and the Arctic, leading to detrimental impacts on biodiversity.