Mapping the Environmental and Social Risks, Challenges and Opportunities in the Gold Supply Chain for Electronics

Non-fuel mining is known to cause extensive environmental and social impacts. Problems have been exacerbated as demand for minerals has grown over the last decade, due in part to the growth in demand for consumer electronics. (More than 8 billion smartphones have been sold since 2007.) Artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) around the world now rely on consumer demand in order to survive and corporations fuel increased consumption with annual production and promotion cycles. Simultaneously, many change-focused efforts abound in both consumer/northern nations and producer/southern nations. Despite awareness of problems among industry and governments, meaningful progress is slow and limited, at best.

Building on SEI’s portfolio of producer-to-consumer research linked to energy and agricultural commodities, this project is designed to lay the groundwork for a new research stream focused on the risks and opportunities in non-fuel mining, the consumption of minerals, and the disposal of goods containing them by examining the case of gold in the electronics sector.