Vancouver company scores team win in global mining competition
Vancouver, Canada - A clean technology solution to remove toxins from artisanal gold mining by indigenous peoples has led to a big win for a Vancouver company as part of team led by an American university.
SEF Canada was part of the Georgia-based Mercer University-led team <https:// www.mercer.edu> which won Top Prize in the Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge Global Competition worth US$200,000.
“It’s important because for 25 years we have worked with indigenous and local communities in South America and other places where we see the need to remove toxins like mercury from their hand mining process,” says McFaul. “This is a great opportunity and with Mercer University we prevailed against entries from 42 countries.”
ASGM (Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining) is a vital source of income for some 40 million people in the world’s poorest communities, yet this type of mining is rife with complications to human and ecological well being. The most deadly part of the process is the toxic mercury pollution which is discarded into the environment and ultimately the water ways.
McFaul says the process, “Mercury Capture Systems for ASGM Gold Shops,” was led by an illustrious team at Mercer along with other top scientists from Centro de Innovación Científica Amazónica, Wake Forest University’s Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, Duke University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Toronto.
Together they created a mercury capture system to remove dangerous elemental mercury vapour emitted during the amalgam burning process from the air of gold shops during the
initial and final stages of gold extraction and refinement. Moreover, McFaul says, “It means miners can earn more money while working in safer conditions for themselves and their natural environment.”
“What an amazing experience,” said Dr. Adam Kiefer, Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Mercer. “We have been working on the Mercury Capture System for almost 10 years, and to have others see the potential of our invention and acknowledge its promise towards a cleaner future for ASGM is a true honor.”
Canadian universities were also well represented. SEF Canada is affiliated with the University of British Columbia and the team also included Dr. Bridget Bergquist at the University of Toronto <https://www.es.utoronto.ca/people/faculty/bergquist-bridget/>
About SEF Canada Ltd.: SEF Canada was founded in 1995 by Suzette McFaul and has worked hands-on with 300 communities in more that 18 countries through its subsidiary SEF Clean Gold Community Solutions <https://sefcleangold.com/> and through this subsidiary, we work with ASGM communities.
McFaul is driven by the goal of not only making artisanal mining safer for both the indigenous communities who practice is but also to ensure they get a fair market price for their efforts.
In addition to an experienced team of scientists and business partners it is also affiliated with the University of British Columbia.
As an evangelist for sage artisanal mining, environmental protection and indigenous rights, McFaul has traveled deep into mining countries and faced many personal risks, including being robbed at gunpoint in Ecuador and threatened by local mining bosses.
Undeterred, SEF Canada and SEF Clean Gold continues to consult and train in the field of Local Economic Development and Corporate Social Responsibility, a community-based economic development tool.
The proved ED methodology has been successful in North and South America, Australia, Europe, Africa and Asia.
About the Competition: Conservation X Labs, a technology and innovation company that creates breakthroughs and empowers innovators to build ventures that revolutionize conservation, is leading and administering the Challenge. Members of the Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge Global Coalition include the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Microsoft, Centro de Innovación Científica Amazónica, Delve, Conservation International, The Tech Interactive, World Wildlife Fun, Wildlife Conservation Society, Andes Amazon Fund, Amazon Conservation Association, Levin Sources, Pan American Development Foundation, Water, Environment and Human Development Initiative, Resolve, Mongabay, Pure Earth, and the Chambers Federation.