Responsible mining
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Responsible Mining refers to mining activity which does not degrade the environment and helps enhance social relations. It is mining which does not exploit miners nor their communities and restores the ecosystem where mining takes place to at least equal health as before mining began. There are three basic human industries which all others are subsidiaries of - mining, forest management and agriculture in that chronological order. Agriculture and forest management movements are well on their way toward restoring damages wrought by civilization. Responsible mining is a newly appearing movement whose central goal is to repair and prevent destruction of the earth and living organisms by mining activities, as is happening with agriculture and forest management. Responsible mining is analogous to the other two basic human industries of organic food production and sustainable forest management.
Responsible mining first began to appear in an article entitled 'Re-inhabitory Mining ( 1979 "Re-inhabitory Mining", CITY MINER, Vol.4, No.1, Berkeley, CA.), and next as Ecological Mining (1988 "Ecological Mining", Restoring the Earth Conference, Berkeley, Calif., in MODERN GOLD MINER & TREASURE HUNTER, Nov.\Dec., 1988 and in other publications and conferences - available upon request.).
The term Responsible Mining was formulated by Ranil Senanayake of the International Analog Forest Network and Brian Hill of the Institute for Cultural Ecology. It has been formalized through the Association for Responsible Mining (ARM)- www.communitymining.org which embodies the most current principles and standards for the now rapidly expanding responsible mining movement. BioVerde, S.A. - www.BioVerde.net - provides consultancies to protect and advance the rights and traditions of small and medium size mining communities, to provide responsible mining plans of operation, appropriate technology, and to help market limited quantities of precious metals and gems. Two of BioVerde directors were founders of ARM
