00:00:02
We have here 37.
Let me introduce you to
00:00:05
the person whose measurements are being
00:00:07
taken.
It's me, documentary filmmaker
00:00:10
Dave Lines. I'm about to tell you the
00:00:13
story of how I got this blue green suit,
00:00:18
why this river in Ghana is so yellow,
00:00:22
[Music]
00:00:25
and what all of this has to do with the
00:00:27
title of this film.
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[Music]
00:00:42
[Music]
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This is my first time in an unofficial
00:00:49
small mine and it's very slippery.
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Places like this are called smallcale or
00:00:58
artistal minds.
00:01:03
It's almost impossible to talk over the
00:01:05
running machines. It's better over here.
00:01:11
They are done with the night shift. They
00:01:12
are now coming to start the day shift.
00:01:14
So at night they are also working
00:01:16
electric light or
No, no, there's not.
00:01:18
They use touch lights.
Torch lights.
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Yeah.
Okay. For me it seems a bit
00:01:23
dangerous. It's loud. It's smoky. It's
00:01:26
slippery.
We are used to it. We are not
00:01:29
used to it. We are used to the noise
00:01:31
pollution. The smoke actually you don't
00:01:34
feel it. So maybe to dangerous but it's
00:01:37
normal.
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The workers use two methods to mine the
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gold. They extracted out of the ground
00:01:59
with water or dig it out of underground
00:02:02
tunnels.
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[Music]
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Gold mining takes place across almost
00:02:09
all of Ghana in unofficial mines like
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this one or bigger industrial ones with
00:02:15
consequences which I want to take a
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closer look at. But first, we take a
00:02:19
step back. Why should I, a journalist
00:02:21
reporting on Switzerland, be interested
00:02:23
in this? This man knows the answer.
00:02:28
Mark P8 is a lawyer, anti-corruption
00:02:31
expert, and author.
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[Music]
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Switzerland plays an astonishing role in
00:02:38
the gold business. It's a country that
00:02:41
actually has no gold at all, but it has
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the largest refineries in the world.
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Until recently, 70% of the world's gold
00:02:50
was refined in Switzerland. Now it's
00:02:53
maybe 50%.
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That's still higher than anywhere else
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in the world.
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According to the industry association,
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onethird of global gold production is
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currently processed in Swiss refineries.
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The big four are Metalor, Agor Heras,
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MKS Pomp, and Valkcami.
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I'd love to take a look behind the
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scenes of this secretive industry.
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The problem is that a lot of this gold
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is dirty because it involves child labor
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because rainforests being cut down,
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because mercury is being emitted.
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We also have problems with conflict
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gold, which keeps coming into
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Switzerland.
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conflict
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dirty gold in one of the world's
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cleanest countries. The matter caught
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the attention of the United Nations
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which believes that the problems
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originate at the highest level.
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In the year 2023, you sent a letter to
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the Swiss government. What was it about?
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I was uh particularly concerned as
00:04:04
expressed in that letter about the
00:04:06
insufficiencies that existed in Swiss
00:04:10
legislation and policy in regards to the
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imports of gold.
And what do you expect
00:04:17
from the Swiss government? I expect
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Switzerland to strengthen its laws and
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policy and to have clear standards that
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would require its refineries not to
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become complicit and contribute to human
00:04:31
rights violations overseas, which is the
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current situation. And the way to do
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that is to require strong due diligence
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so that the refineries know where their
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gold is coming from, who produced it,
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and how it was produced. Now, that's
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what I call a clear statement. But
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before I go into that, we'll take a
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detour to the south and back in time.
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How did Switzerland achieve its prime
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position in the global gold industry?
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Three out of Switzerland's four biggest
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refineries are located here in Tino.
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Historically, what's the reason for
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this?
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It's no coincidence that they're in the
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very south of Switzerland, close to the
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Italian border. On the one hand,
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Switzerland has always offered political
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stability,
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so one could stay out of war.
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On the other hand, the financial
00:05:32
industry, the banks financing these
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transactions, this gold trade were
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already strong. And then there's perhaps
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another reason. Italy always had a
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strong tradition of jewelry making.
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For a long time, Italy was the world's
00:05:49
largest jewelry producer, making it the
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ideal buyer for gold from Switzerland.
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But there's another shadier side to the
00:05:57
story, and the banks played a part in
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it.
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Four of the seven biggest gold
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refineries in the world are here in
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Switzerland. What's the historical
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reason?
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Yes, the reasons for this are not very
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uplifting. Originally, it had to do with
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the fact that the Nazis misused neutral
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Switzerland to melt down gold they had
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stolen from national banks,
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but also from Jewish people. In extreme
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cases, even the gold teeth of those they
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murdered.
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This was melted down here and stamped as
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Swiss gold
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and Switzerland received it in exchange
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for Swiss Franks.
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A topic already investigated in another
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documentary.
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The German Reichkes mark was not
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accepted anywhere outside Germany.
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For weapons and raw materials, the Nazis
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needed a strong currency and
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cosmopolitan bankers with few scruples.
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They found both in Switzerland.
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Something similar actually happened with
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apartheid in South Africa where
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Switzerland helped it to circumvent UN
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sanctions.
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During racial segregation, South Africa
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was the world's largest gold producer
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and that's how the controversial state
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was financed.
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Switzerland cashed in heavily on this.
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Each of the four major banks at the time
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built its own refinery.
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[Music]
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That's how the four refineries that
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still exist today were built
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by the four big Swiss banks that helped
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South Africa avoid national bankruptcy.
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It's difficult to oppress a people
00:07:58
without violence.
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The South African president's heavy hand
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had consequences and economic sanctions
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came into force. But Switzerland didn't
00:08:15
play along. During that time, over 50%
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of South Africa's gold production
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continued to make its way to
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Switzerland.
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Today, with gold from Russia being
00:08:25
sanctioned, is something similar
00:08:27
happening again in Switzerland?
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Yes, something very similar is
00:08:31
happening. Russian gold is still coming
00:08:34
into Switzerland today, albeit in a
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roundabout way.
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Since the beginning of the Ukraine war
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in 2022, Switzerland's gold imports from
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Usuzbekiststan and Kazakhstan have
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increased immensely and suspiciously.
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According to their own statements,
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Switzerland's biggest refineries
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voluntarily adhere to the OECD standard.
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This requires them to exercise due
00:09:02
diligence along the entire supply chain.
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Yet, the only legal requirement in
00:09:07
Switzerland to date is to indicate from
00:09:09
whom the gold was purchased. So, let's
00:09:12
take a step back.
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There is a loophole in Swiss legislation
00:09:18
regarding due diligence and transparency
00:09:20
in the origin of gold.
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The competent authority, the precious
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metals control, cannot verify the
00:09:26
legality of the gold if it only goes
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back to one dealer. I think the fact
00:09:31
that even the Swiss precious metals
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processes association is calling for
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stricter rules is clear proof that this
00:09:37
loophole exists.
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Wall Street.
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In March 2025, the National Council, a
00:09:46
chamber of the Swiss Parliament, voted
00:09:48
in favor of the requested revision of
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the Precious Metals Control Act. Now, it
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goes to the Council of States. I'm
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curious about an industry which is
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calling for its own stricter regulation
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and was invited to join a media round
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table.
We are the umbrella organization
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of the Swiss precious metal industry.
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very often we are compared uh with the
00:10:13
raw material trading uh segment. This is
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absolutely not the case. Our industry we
00:10:19
work we work hard. The precious metal of
00:10:24
dubious origin has no place in
00:10:26
Switzerland. We have immense immense
00:10:30
challenges along the chain. We have the
00:10:33
problem of corruption. We have the
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problem of respecting human rights. We
00:10:38
have uh child labor problem. We have the
00:10:42
negative impact on the environment.
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One is never too old to learn.
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We have come to realize that the
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pressure from the public market has
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created a certain need for transparency.
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I knock on the door of Ago Heros, one of
00:11:02
the biggest refineries in Switzerland. A
00:11:04
friendly phone call, a week-l long wait,
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and then
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Ago Heros is a global pioneer in the use
00:11:13
of supply chain traceability technology.
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Unfortunately, we believe that the topic
00:11:18
cannot be adequately dealt with in a
00:11:20
short program with a wide variety of
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protagonists and will therefore refrain
00:11:25
from allowing filming at our premises.
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MKS Pomp is also a member of the
00:11:32
umbrella organization. After long
00:11:34
preliminary talks, a short answer.
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Apologies for the late reply. MKS Pomp
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will not participate in this matter.
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[Music]
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That leaves me with a third and final
00:11:47
major member of the association,
00:11:50
Metalore in Mavan, French-speaking
00:11:52
Switzerland.
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And hallelujah, I'm actually allowed in.
00:11:59
At least in the laboratory where I will
00:12:01
learn all about the geoforensic passport
00:12:04
developed jointly with Baba Beck and the
00:12:07
University of Lausan. Metalor has a huge
00:12:11
database of rock samples and their
00:12:13
metallurgical composition from various
00:12:15
mines around the world. This forms the
00:12:18
basis for traceability.
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If it comes to gold from big official
00:12:24
mines, is it possible to trace it back
00:12:27
from the mine to the refinery in
00:12:30
Switzerland? Tracing the gold is not
00:12:32
really a problem. All transport of
00:12:34
material is done via secure
00:12:36
transporters. So we know exactly where
00:12:39
the gold is coming from. The real
00:12:41
question is how can we ensure that the
00:12:44
supplier is not adding material from
00:12:47
illegal source in the material and for
00:12:50
this the geo forensic passport offer a
00:12:52
security we cannot have with any other
00:12:54
technique. It's an analysis of every
00:12:57
single ingot coming from mine arriving
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at a refinery and we compare the
00:13:02
signature of that ingot with the
00:13:04
signature of the supplier. If there is a
00:13:07
mismatch, we know there may be a problem
00:13:09
and we investigate further.
00:13:12
One never stops learning. Gold minded in
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big mines is pre-refined on site. What
00:13:18
is then sent to Switzerland for refining
00:13:20
is known in the industry as Dori. And
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here's the thing, in addition to gold,
00:13:26
Dori always contains silver, copper, and
00:13:29
all the other metals that can be found
00:13:31
in the earth in different quantities.
00:13:34
Their combination makes each mine
00:13:36
unique.
00:13:41
There are still something that geo
00:13:42
forensic passport is not capable of.
The
00:13:45
geo forensic passport is a fantastic
00:13:47
solution when it comes to mine gold but
00:13:50
it cannot be applied when material are
00:13:52
mixed together
00:13:54
and that's exactly the issue.
00:13:58
85% of the gold that comes into
00:14:00
Switzerland has already been melted
00:14:03
down.
00:14:04
[Music]
00:14:08
Gold doesn't disappear. It is
00:14:10
continuously remelted, refined, remelted
00:14:14
and refined. So you can have in all
00:14:18
recycled gold, gold from ancient Egypt
00:14:21
from Cleopatra. You can have gold that
00:14:25
was coming from uh the Nazi Germany that
00:14:29
was stored here and so on.
00:14:33
I'm now at Valkcami in Tino in terms of
00:14:36
capacity the biggest gold refinery in
00:14:39
the world.
00:14:42
At last I get to see with my own eyes
00:14:44
how the smelting process actually works.
00:14:49
The deal is I'm here to talk about
00:14:51
Valkci's gold traceability measures, but
00:14:54
I never expected to get access to this
00:14:56
refinery of all places.
00:15:00
[Music]
00:15:06
Valkci is the largest refinery in
00:15:08
Switzerland. Yet last year, it decided
00:15:10
to leave the Swiss Association of
00:15:12
Manufacturers and Traders in Precious
00:15:14
Metals.
00:15:15
This may have something to do with the
00:15:17
fact that Valkcambi is the only refinery
00:15:19
in Switzerland that still sources gold
00:15:21
from the United Arab Emirates,
00:15:23
specifically from Dubai.
00:15:28
Dubai. By this point, I've heard a lot
00:15:31
about it. The gold from there is
00:15:33
divisive in terms of opinions and
00:15:35
refineries.
00:15:39
Dubai
00:15:42
Dubai has very good reliable partners.
00:15:46
But Dubai is also a center. People know
00:15:49
that illegal black market criminal gold
00:15:53
that comes into the country from Africa
00:15:55
is processed there.
00:15:57
That's a fact.
00:16:00
And as I mentioned, we at the
00:16:02
association are of the opinion that if
00:16:04
the source cannot be clearly identified,
00:16:06
we should keep our hands off it.
00:16:12
But Kambi is the only of the four big
00:16:14
Swiss refineries which still works with
00:16:17
gold from Dubai.
Yes.
And why why is it
00:16:20
like this? Well, because if you look at
00:16:23
the numbers, WCAMI has taken around 300
00:16:27
tons of gold from Dubai last year, more
00:16:30
or less. Dubai produce 1,300 tons. You
00:16:34
cannot say I don't take from Dubai
00:16:37
means you don't receive gold from Dubai
00:16:40
because the remaining 1,000 tons
00:16:42
produced from Dubai will flow in the
00:16:45
market. We prefer to go and take from
00:16:48
two approved producers in Dubai where we
00:16:52
do an enhanced due diligence than to say
00:16:56
we do not take from Dubai and then you
00:16:58
receive gold from other countries.
00:16:59
That's why we continue to take the
00:17:02
position of the association is
00:17:03
different. We know and that's why we
00:17:06
decided to leave the association. It's
00:17:08
not acceptable that you block a country
00:17:11
because you're not able to do your job.
00:17:13
Valkcami is confident that they have
00:17:16
their supply chain under control. To
00:17:18
check gold from big mines, they use a
00:17:20
technique similar to the geoforensic
00:17:23
passport. For gold from smaller mines,
00:17:26
they're still working on a technique and
00:17:28
rely on controls.
00:17:31
How often a year is a mine visited?
00:17:35
Well, uh, by definition for VCAMI, any
00:17:38
high-risk counterparty must be visited
00:17:42
at least once per year.
It gets more
00:17:45
complicated with recycled gold. In this
00:17:48
case, only close monitoring,
00:17:50
certification bodies, traders,
00:17:52
middlemen, previous refineries, and so
00:17:55
on can help.
00:17:58
All the information is stored on various
00:18:00
software.
00:18:02
Valkcami requires its suppliers to apply
00:18:05
the same standards of care as it does
00:18:07
itself. These are verified through
00:18:10
regular checks.
00:18:11
[Music]
00:18:15
I'm in the field in Ghana to take a
00:18:17
closer look at gold mining and its
00:18:20
impact.
00:18:22
So this is what
00:18:24
mining is doing to our rivers in Ghana.
00:18:28
almost every part of the country. This
00:18:30
is what the miners are doing to our
00:18:32
rivers. This is river Bri. It's one of
00:18:35
the traditional rivers that you can find
00:18:37
in Ghana. It serves many communities for
00:18:40
farming, for household activities and
00:18:42
all of that. Before the year 2000s, it
00:18:46
used to be a very clean water or river
00:18:48
that people depend on it. You get fish
00:18:50
in there, people use it for farming and
00:18:52
all of that. But as we speak, this is
00:18:55
the state. is very tabbed and dirty.
00:18:59
Ghana is the biggest gold mining country
00:19:01
in Africa and Switzerland is the biggest
00:19:04
buyer. Or Pong is a journalist and has
00:19:08
been reporting on the impacts for his
00:19:10
home country for years. Testing the
00:19:13
water would cost $190
00:19:16
a month's salary, a sum he can't afford
00:19:20
on his own. We now have to wait 14 days
00:19:23
for the results. Just enough time for an
00:19:26
epic journey into the heart of gold
00:19:28
mining.
00:19:30
No matter where you go, the precious
00:19:32
metal plays a role. Our first stop is
00:19:35
Tarqua, a lively town in the western
00:19:38
Wasa district.
00:19:43
Industrial mines have been operating in
00:19:45
the region for decades.
00:19:49
Here, one of the largest gold mines in
00:19:51
Africa is operated by Gold Fields, a
00:19:54
company from South Africa.
00:19:59
We confirm that some of the gold mined
00:20:02
here goes to one of the four big
00:20:04
refineries in Switzerland.
00:20:08
For just 1 to 3 g of gold, a ton of rock
00:20:12
needs to be blasted from this quarry.
00:20:17
Everything we see here is really big,
00:20:20
but as far as I can tell, topnotch,
00:20:23
extremely high safety standards apply.
00:20:25
We're assured that there is no
00:20:27
pollution. All the water stays inside
00:20:29
the mine and is even cleaner than the
00:20:32
water outside.
00:20:36
Extensive renaturalization measures are
00:20:39
in place, and there's no way that dirty
00:20:41
gold can be smuggled into a shipment
00:20:43
here. This is backed up by countless
00:20:46
certifications
00:20:48
from ICMI to ISO 14,01
00:20:52
um ISO 45,01, ISO 27,01,
00:20:56
ISO 50,000 and one. We are a member of
00:21:00
the world gold council. We are a member
00:21:02
of the ICMM. We belong to other
00:21:05
international institutions that ensures
00:21:08
that we have transparency in um in how
00:21:11
we mine and sell gold. you are a
00:21:14
multinational company. I always wonder
00:21:16
why it's not a Ganian company which
00:21:19
which owns the the gold here in Ghana.
00:21:23
So I mean you are
and I I I can tell you
00:21:27
um so we used to have a
00:21:30
um state um gold mining corporation.
00:21:34
But I guess over time what we have
00:21:36
realized is that um companies that are
00:21:39
run by the state are not run
00:21:40
efficiently. I mean, you always need um
00:21:43
private participation. We make sure that
00:21:47
host countries benefit from what we we
00:21:51
do here.
00:21:52
[Music]
00:21:53
The company has invested 100 million US
00:21:56
dollars into infrastructure, education,
00:21:58
and health in the region in recent
00:22:00
decades.
00:22:02
The communities themselves decide what
00:22:04
they need most.
00:22:07
[Music]
00:22:09
Just a week before our visit, the most
00:22:12
urgent need was this football stadium.
00:22:17
Goldfields has a dedicated department
00:22:19
for public communications.
Dave, nice to
00:22:22
meet you.
What are the challenges? What
00:22:24
are the negative effect the community
00:22:25
has with big scale mining?
So the
00:22:28
challenges basically are from the fact
00:22:31
that they need more. Communities are
00:22:32
always expecting more from us and as one
00:22:35
company sometimes you can't do it all.
00:22:38
This is a developing country and if you
00:22:40
have a multinational here, the community
00:22:42
expects that every problem that they
00:22:45
they have um the company should come in
00:22:47
to support.
00:22:50
We're told Goldfields has been operating
00:22:52
in the area for so long that the big
00:22:54
battles have long been fought.
00:22:57
[Music]
00:23:00
So, off we go to Numant, an allegedly
00:23:03
notorious mining company. The name isn't
00:23:06
new to me. I've read about it in Out of
00:23:08
the Shadows, a report by the Swiss NGO
00:23:11
Swiss Aid
00:23:18
in 2023. Business connections between
00:23:21
the major refineries and their sources
00:23:23
were made public.
00:23:29
The report and our own research suggest
00:23:32
that one of the major Swiss refineries
00:23:34
sourced gold from Numont and still does
00:23:36
today.
00:23:38
[Music]
00:23:40
Let's see what the people there have to
00:23:42
say.
00:23:45
When you come into the community, you
00:23:47
see the problem. You see a lot of
00:23:50
problem. All the water bodies in this
00:23:52
area, you are destroyed them. You have
00:23:54
some people cruising to the mining
00:23:56
activity.
00:23:58
those people when you look at their
00:24:00
skin, you cry for them. It's a very
00:24:03
serious and you pay a little
00:24:06
compensation to take a cocoa farm. The
00:24:10
law says that when you destroy
00:24:12
somebody's cocoa farm, you have to pay
00:24:15
the life expectancy of the crop. But it
00:24:20
doesn't work. The life expectancy of the
00:24:22
cocoa tree it can last about 50 to the
00:24:27
1,700 years in this area and you pay 120
00:24:33
cities for a whole economic life of the
00:24:35
cocoa tree. It is the the adequate
00:24:38
compensation. In my understanding, a
00:24:42
compensation should be enough that the
00:24:44
farmer who lost his land, his farmland
00:24:47
should be able to buy a dequired new
00:24:50
farmland in the same size to continue
00:24:52
his work. They only pay the crops. It's
00:24:55
not the land. When you pay the crops and
00:24:58
that's money you use to get up for your
00:25:02
family, the the farm is not there. And
00:25:04
the same money you use for food, you use
00:25:07
for everything. How can you buy a land
00:25:10
from that money? You can't get it. You
00:25:13
are farmers. You don't have anything to
00:25:15
farm. So what is the hope?
00:25:18
You don't have any hope.
00:25:22
Okay.
A 2-hour bumpy drive away, I meet
00:25:26
this farmer and his family.
I have seven
00:25:29
children. Sis are me and female is one.
00:25:35
And you all live together? Yeah,
00:25:39
the family lives together in this room
00:25:44
just outside the village. Newmont is
00:25:46
starting a new mining project.
00:25:50
At the local school, I learned that
00:25:52
members of the community researched how
00:25:54
the company had proceeded in neighboring
00:25:57
regions.
00:26:01
He started to use military. He started
00:26:04
to use police. If you have a village or
00:26:06
a structure within the concession, they
00:26:08
just go there and demolish the structure
00:26:11
without compensation, they started
00:26:14
destroying a lot of villages. If you are
00:26:16
not fortunate and you meet them, they
00:26:20
will just beat you up. So through that,
00:26:23
we decided to find a means to protect
00:26:25
our properties. So we form an
00:26:28
association called concerned farmers
00:26:30
association.
00:26:33
[Music]
00:26:34
Neimon decided to use some kind of
00:26:37
strategy. They came to the community.
00:26:39
They also organized some people. So it
00:26:41
became divide and rule. Some of the
00:26:44
farmers are not educated. So when they
00:26:46
enter their farms, whatever they they
00:26:48
write on the compensation sheet, they
00:26:51
cannot even read. So they just interpret
00:26:53
it to suit the farmer's ear. So the
00:26:57
whole community was divided.
00:27:02
One of the things that bothered the
00:27:04
farmers was that the surveyors were paid
00:27:06
by the companies and the entire process
00:27:09
of surveying their farms was not
00:27:11
transparent.
00:27:15
They resisted for as long as they could,
00:27:18
but eventually their fish ponds, wells,
00:27:21
chickens, and plantations could not be
00:27:23
saved.
00:27:26
The government supported the company.
00:27:29
Yes. The government came in to take the
00:27:32
possession of the land
00:27:35
and did you have any chance to resist
00:27:37
this? No, we no you have nothing to do
00:27:41
to resist them because government has
00:27:44
taken possession.
00:27:46
He says the only compensation he's
00:27:48
received to date has been six times the
00:27:51
equivalent of $17
00:27:53
to rent a place for his family to live.
00:27:55
Those who are not part of the
00:27:57
association they have got their
00:27:59
composition but at the moment they all
00:28:01
crying. Some of them started to put up a
00:28:04
bum and some of them reach a dwarf stage
00:28:07
and the money is finished. Let me use
00:28:09
this. The whole in future the whole
00:28:11
community is doing
00:28:14
[Music]
00:28:19
change of scene. Same precious metal
00:28:22
different impact. This town is booming.
00:28:31
Tens of thousands, mainly young men,
00:28:34
have been drawn to this place for years,
00:28:36
attracted by the gold rush.
00:28:41
[Music]
00:28:50
I meet my guide who has worked his way
00:28:52
up from simple shoveler to the finance
00:28:55
here of this small mine. The excavator
00:28:58
has to run around the clock to make the
00:29:00
investment worthwhile.
00:29:12
[Music]
00:29:17
The excavated material is sipped through
00:29:20
in two 9-hour shifts,
00:29:26
but no nuggets are found here. Only tiny
00:29:28
stones with gold particles.
00:29:32
They get stuck in the sheets and are
00:29:34
collected.
How much do one machine get
00:29:37
per 9 hour shift? Uh let me say about 3
00:29:42
g 4 g per shift.
$200 for six workers a
00:29:46
day.
Yeah. Per day.
Yeah. The police
00:29:49
sometimes comes and stops.
Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:51
Police sometimes come. Sometimes
00:29:52
military sometime please
and then they
00:29:55
take all the machines with them or how
00:29:56
can
No, no. They can't take the machines
00:29:58
with them. They have to stop it.
00:29:59
Sometimes they destroy the machines.
00:30:01
Sometimes they don't when they come here
00:30:02
they don't do anything. They just talk
00:30:05
to us on how we can do responsible
00:30:07
mining without destroying the water
00:30:10
bodies and after that we reclaim the
00:30:11
land.
00:30:14
There are not much other job
00:30:16
opportunities in the area.
No no no
00:30:18
there's no apart from mining. There's no
00:30:20
factory here. There's nothing apart from
00:30:22
the mining.
Only farming would be
only
00:30:25
farming. Majority of the population
00:30:27
prefer mining to farming.
00:30:32
Once the material has been sd several
00:30:34
times, mercury is used. That's right,
00:30:37
the liquid heavy metal that can have
00:30:39
serious health consequences, including
00:30:41
causing mal forations in newborn babies.
00:30:45
[Music]
00:30:49
One thing it does well, it binds to gold
00:30:52
particles.
00:30:57
Once this happens, it is then separated
00:31:00
from the gold.
00:31:05
The toxic fumes dissipate and here's the
00:31:08
result.
00:31:13
[Music]
00:31:16
That was intense. Next, I go to talk to
00:31:20
experts at the University of Minds and
00:31:22
Technology in Tarqua.
00:31:24
When we talk of the negative impact on
00:31:27
the small scale mining, one of the
00:31:29
biggest is the environmental impact. I'm
00:31:31
looking at disturbing our water bodies
00:31:33
abandoned pits all over which serves as
00:31:36
a breeding ground for sometime
00:31:38
mosquitoes and also as a dead trap to
00:31:40
children or farmers. We also have air
00:31:43
issues areas where amalgamation burning
00:31:45
of the mercury happens. you have some
00:31:47
mercy vapor in the atmosphere which also
00:31:50
definitely pollutes the environment and
00:31:52
also has um health implication.
I
00:31:55
already did an interview with some of
00:31:56
the gold refineries in Switzerland. One
00:31:59
of the big four in Switzerland decided
00:32:02
not to buy gold from smallcale mining
00:32:04
anymore. What does a decision like this
00:32:07
mean for the society in Ghana?
I would
00:32:09
tell them straight away to heavily
00:32:11
invest in the small scale mining sector.
00:32:13
The reason being that one um the number
00:32:16
of people that depend on the sector is a
00:32:18
lot. 4 million people out of 30 million
00:32:21
are depending on the sector. The
00:32:24
question is is it a sector we should
00:32:25
neglect? No. I believe so much in the
00:32:28
small scale mining sector. They can
00:32:30
source responsibly. The Swiss team
00:32:33
please come on board. We know Swiss have
00:32:35
good standards. You have good stand.
00:32:37
We've heard about the Swiss watches and
00:32:40
the Swiss staffs. We believe that if you
00:32:42
also get involved, we could learn from
00:32:46
you guys and better the system. But when
00:32:48
you stay away from the sector, it won't
00:32:50
get better.
00:32:52
There's no shortage of brilliant ideas
00:32:55
and they're surprisingly simple. This
00:32:58
machine from the company commodity
00:33:00
monitor carries out the final step in
00:33:02
the gold mining process without using
00:33:05
mercury or any chemicals.
You watch from
00:33:08
here. You know there are some sleeves in
00:33:10
it. So the gold gets stuck on it. Yes.
00:33:13
Yes.
The trick is in having several
00:33:15
layers.
The first level gets about 90%
00:33:19
of the gold, you know, and then the
00:33:21
second and third gets the rest. So you
00:33:24
see see right you have the eye, you see
00:33:26
the gold that stuck in between. See the
00:33:30
yellowish in between the mats. You know,
00:33:32
a machine like this costs between$2 and
00:33:35
$3,000.
00:33:37
An expense that would quickly pay for
00:33:39
itself, but it's a big investment for
00:33:42
the small miners.
How many of these can
00:33:44
you produce in a year?
In a year, you
00:33:46
can produce millions.
And how many are
00:33:47
in use already?
There are about 30
00:33:49
miners in Ghana using it. And actually,
00:33:52
some in Guinea using it and then some in
00:33:54
Zambia using it.
00:33:58
I want to know more about the trading
00:34:00
process in Ghana. So, I investigate.
00:34:05
So, I saw you have a shop for buying and
00:34:08
selling. Yeah, sure.
Could we go inside
00:34:11
to try a little talk?
Yeah.
00:34:14
Or Pong has already told me that sales
00:34:17
here are very straightforward.
00:34:20
I go to the river. I take out some gold.
00:34:23
I'm lucky. I have a lucky day. I find
00:34:25
two grand. I walk in here. It puts it on
00:34:29
the way. I give me the money and I walk
00:34:30
away.
That's all.
That's all.
That's
00:34:32
all. And all this is completely without
00:34:34
any documentation. Nobody wants to know
00:34:37
where the gold is coming from.
No, no,
00:34:39
no, no, no. There is no documentation.
00:34:40
Is there any documentation? No. So it is
00:34:43
very difficult the process very
00:34:46
difficult to trace the gold and where it
00:34:48
is coming from. It mixes up. So somebody
00:34:52
came to him, he he buys it, another
00:34:55
person from somewhere else also brings
00:34:57
it, he buys it. Like the process
00:34:59
continues like that. Then at the end of
00:35:01
the week he gives it to another person
00:35:03
who will now merge all those different
00:35:06
ones together as one gold and that makes
00:35:09
it very difficult to trace the source
00:35:11
where the gold is coming from.
It's
00:35:14
impossible.
It's impossible.
No wonder
00:35:16
so much gold disappears undeclared from
00:35:18
the country and continent.
00:35:22
We published a study on African gold
00:35:24
flows.
00:35:25
The idea was to find out how much gold
00:35:27
is produced and exported legally and
00:35:30
illegally.
00:35:32
We came to the conclusion that in 2022
00:35:35
more than $430 tons of gold worth over
00:35:38
$30 billion was smuggled from the
00:35:41
African continent.
00:35:45
The precious minerals marketing company
00:35:47
in Acra. This is where all gold that
00:35:50
leaves Ghana legally is registered. We
00:35:53
have an appointment with the boss.
Swiss
00:35:56
NGO did a large study. They came to the
00:35:59
finding that each year between 20 and 30
00:36:01
tons of gold leave Ghana undeclared. Do
00:36:05
you think this is realistic?
No, I do
00:36:08
not think that figure is accurate. Yes,
00:36:11
there is some um smuggling that goes on,
00:36:16
but I would give it a figure of about
00:36:19
anywhere between five tons to up to a
00:36:22
maximum 10 tons in the gold producing
00:36:26
area. I randomly visited some of the
00:36:28
small shops which are selling and buying
00:36:31
gold and all of them told me that
00:36:34
there's absolutely no documentation.
00:36:36
Okay.
So, I was wondering if this is
00:36:38
legal. Well, as far as that is
00:36:41
concerned, that is illegal
00:36:44
because per first of all, PMMC issues
00:36:49
trading licenses. Without that license,
00:36:52
you cannot be trading in gold. Now,
00:36:54
those licenses also come with terms and
00:36:57
conditions. You must actually capture
00:37:00
data
00:37:01
on who you are buying the gold from, how
00:37:05
much you are buying the gold for, what
00:37:07
quantity you are buying it at, details
00:37:10
of the person you are selling the gold
00:37:12
to, and you are supposed to file monthly
00:37:16
returns
00:37:18
of all of this information.
Yeah, that's
00:37:20
good to hear. And I really hope that it
00:37:22
will work because when I was in this
00:37:26
area, I didn't have the impression that
00:37:28
it that the people over there already
00:37:30
know about this. Perhaps um with this
00:37:32
information you are giving me what it
00:37:34
then means is that we need to also
00:37:37
emphasize on sensitization. We need to
00:37:40
do more as far as uh sensitization is
00:37:43
concerned.
All in all, not so bad.
00:37:47
I compliment him on his smart suit and
00:37:50
the next morning at the hotel I receive
00:37:52
a voucher.
00:37:55
T7
00:37:59
a customized suit for free hospitality
00:38:03
demonstration of power. I'm not that
00:38:05
easy to buy.
00:38:10
I am a western lawyer, anti-corruption
00:38:13
activist and also environmental
00:38:15
militant. Most of our leaders are
00:38:18
involved in this corruption.
00:38:21
They contribute to the illegal export of
00:38:24
our gold and they contribute also to the
00:38:28
illegal import of the mercury. I'm very
00:38:31
close to one of the biggest gold
00:38:34
traffickers in Ghana. I can even say in
00:38:38
West Africa. He told me many evidence
00:38:41
about how the gold leave Ghana to Dubai.
00:38:44
They have a very very restrictive
00:38:48
network here in Ghana in the airport in
00:38:52
which some official are involved
00:38:55
includes some politicians, some powerful
00:38:57
persons. If a a gold dealer want to
00:39:02
export four tons for example for example
00:39:06
he just need to declare like two tons
00:39:10
and the other two tons leave the Ghana
00:39:13
is equally their client in Dubai they
00:39:16
will let the customer in Dubai knows
00:39:18
about it and they fill all the
00:39:21
formalities before the gold come. So the
00:39:24
process is very very simple.
00:39:27
The precious metal leaves the country.
00:39:29
As to what's left behind, we now have
00:39:32
that in black and white. 0.1 mg of
00:39:36
mercury per liter. Exactly at the WH
00:39:39
limit. Still enough for serious
00:39:41
consequences. Plankton absorbs the
00:39:44
mercury which is consumed by fish and
00:39:46
then by larger predators. Also the
00:39:49
turbidity in the water is 100 times
00:39:51
higher than the safe limit and iron is
00:39:53
30 times higher than allowed in
00:39:55
Switzerland. So hardly any fish can
00:39:58
survive here.
There is no fee in this
00:40:00
country. If government do not take some
00:40:02
measure there is no feature. In less
00:40:04
than 40 years nothing can grow there.
00:40:08
They will degrade all the soils all the
00:40:10
lands. They know that the mercury is not
00:40:12
good. They know they know it's a poison.
00:40:15
They know that this is suicide, but they
00:40:18
don't care because they are surviving.
00:40:20
Please proceed.
00:40:23
Now,
00:40:24
the last conversation has stuck with me,
00:40:27
and I'm wondering after all I've seen
00:40:29
and heard, especially about the scale of
00:40:31
the problem, what a change in the law in
00:40:33
far away Switzerland, might possibly
00:40:35
achieve.
00:40:40
If we really have a law that obliges
00:40:42
refineries to know where their gold
00:40:44
comes from and how the gold has come
00:40:46
onto the market, they would ask the
00:40:48
question as to whether it would not be
00:40:50
better for them to have direct business
00:40:52
relations with the mine in the country
00:40:53
where the gold was extracted and no
00:40:55
longer work with intermediaries.
00:41:00
We have to tackle the problem at the
00:41:01
source. We have to engage with the
00:41:04
artisal miners and really buy directly
00:41:06
from these people.
00:41:09
That's the best way to improve their
00:41:10
living conditions, to increase their
00:41:12
income, and to ensure they work under
00:41:15
acceptable conditions.
00:41:19
If such strict laws were to come into
00:41:21
place, wouldn't the refineries just move
00:41:23
to other countries where such laws don't
00:41:26
apply?
00:41:29
perhaps, but that wouldn't harm
00:41:31
Switzerland at all. Switzerland doesn't
00:41:34
benefit much financially from these
00:41:36
refineries.
00:41:40
That wouldn't be a big problem for
00:41:42
Switzerland, but would it not improve
00:41:44
things in the mining countries?
00:41:48
That's right. I mean, the Swiss
00:41:50
refineries are still among the better
00:41:51
ones.
00:41:53
So from that point of view, as long as a
00:41:56
refinery is in Switzerland, there's a
00:41:58
better chance that things will improve.
00:42:03
[Music]
00:42:23
[Music]
