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Clean Gold
There should be no need to convince gold miners to adopt safe alternatives like cornstarch instead of harmful chemicals like cyanide and mercury if the new approach addresses economic, technical, cultural, and regulatory factors.
Highlighting the health risks to educate miners and their communities about the severe health effects of cyanide and mercury exposure, such as neurological damage, cancer, and environmental degradation has done little, if anything, to keep legal and illegal miners from mining their own way.
Emphasizing the long-term environmental harm caused by these chemicals, including water and soil contamination, which can devastate local ecosystems, has not prevented either legal and illegal miners from mining their own way.
Promoting the benefits of safer methods like cornstarch-based leaching (e.g., the alpha-cyclodextrin method) as eco-friendly, efficient, and safer for miners and communities will have to be accompanied with government incentives to ensure all miners are not only willing but are also able to adopt the new alternatives.
