Transcription
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 allows 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 the 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 unread emails in your inbox. Because let's be honest, there's the kind of people in this world: the ones 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 call mine tailings. The mine tailings are the impacts generated by mining. Some of the impacts, but it's very important, these mine tailings, because these mine tailings 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 mine tailings, 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 miner, a small-scale miner, 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 activity in developing countries, and it's 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 a very, um, interesting and interactive livelihood for the rural poor.
And if we're talking about impact, mine tailings also come in. These are the mine tailings generated by miners in ASGM 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 Zoraida's 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 represents 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 is what is waste. And mining is accounting for 7.4 billion tons just in waste. And there's this arrow. This arrow is 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 hers are trying to help in this recycling.
But the question is, how good are we recycling as 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 mine tailings 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 sold. 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 Zoraida, 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 thing is to change for a better future." If Zoraida 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.