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Gold
Lust Blinds Beneficiaries from Hazards
Wondirad Seifu, September 23, 2007, Addis Fortune
Gold harvesting in Ethiopia is booming with no barriers
to reaping its rewards. Technically it is simple to extract and demands
very little capital with handy equipment such as pick axe, spade, bowl and
cheap mercury.
Gold is now used for jewelleries, medicine, electronics
etc and was a medium of exchanging starting around 3000 BC until it backed
paper notes around 1700 AD. Following the ups and downs during World War
II, its power waned as the international monetary system shifted towards
floating exchange rates in 1974.
However, being a scares commodity, its price has
steadily risen from 365 dollar per ounce in February 2003 to 723 dollars
per ounce last week. The list of causes for the price hikes includes the
devaluation of the dollar, gold-hungry India’s growing economy (the
purchaser of half of the world’s gold) as well as the misleading term
‘terrorism’ causing instability in markets and allegedly taking over supply
chains.
This is good news for the government who earns valuable
foreign exchange, reaching 90 million dollars last fiscal year, while
spending in excess of what the country produces thus running a current
account deficit.
The local gold market is also booming and gold is sold
everywhere on unprecedented scale. For instance, a decade ago there were
very few gold jewellery shops confined to limited areas in Addis Ababa.
Piazza, for instance, once boasted a large share with around 10 glittering
shops; this has more than quadrupled and represented a mere fraction of the
city’s total.
While it may appear that residents of the city are
bubbling with thick pockets, gold is not only respected as luxury but also
as saver against currency devaluation in times of inflation and looming
future of uncertainty. Value may be stored in highly fungible gold
jewellery. In these times of inflation locking some gold away is better
than holding money in the bank with the saving rate at four per cent.
Ethiopia is endowed with vast mineral recourses; gold
being mined in the country’s south: Adola, Shakiso,Hagermarim, Borena,Asosa,Gambela, etc. In these areas the commodity
is widely available in both ore and alluvial deposits.
Migration of labour forces to the areas seems
inevitable. The accompanying influx will involve sex workers, violence and
other social problems if the other African countries both blessed and
seemingly haunted by the recourses may be taken as an example. This is not to
mention the environmental destruction in moving machinery, digging holes up
to 30 meters deep and polluting waterways.
The traditional miners are good enough at their work.
After discovering gold rich soil, a flow is created to a river to wash out
the soil in order to filter the crude gold. The rough product is then
refined by treating it with mercury as it selectively sticks to gold;
mercury is also highly toxic.
Mercury was identified as a toxin when it poisoned
several hundred people in Miniamenta Bay, Japan
in 1960. Since then a disease that causes damage to the nerve system and
birth defects was dubbed Miniamenta disease.
The world keeps an eye on mercury based-products. Many
nations vehemently ban most of them as several hundred people died eating
bread that was baked from wheat seed preserved by mercurial fungicide.
Mercury can easily accumulate in human kidneys and be
absorbed by hair. The current danger hyped food is fish that accumulate
large quantity of the chemical in the ocean. Some countries have adapted
stringent standards to avoid mercury tainted fish from entering the market.
The gold mining factories operating in Ethiopia also use
mercury in addition to cyanide, a deadly chemical in even minute amounts.
Although a study revealed that air within factories is saturated with
mercury vapour, no one knows the worker’s health status even though mercury
could be detected by clinical urine analysis.
The presence of this chemical should be considered when
the output gold has risen from a few thousands birr to 300 million birr
even if the producers are inefficient and waste over 50 pc of the gold they
are attempting to recover.
This is especially true as the gold minings
are nestled amidst important rivers such as Awota,
Mormora and Dawa, which
would not escape being polluted by mercury or cyanide. In the rush to
exploit this resource, other important endowments must not be sacrificed.
This is Ethiopian’s challenge in the coming years:
balancing economic progress with protection of its vast resources. While
developed countries are now spending vast sums to correct their mistakes of
the past Ethiopia may learn from these examples and more responsible
progress.
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