About Reciprocity
reh•suh•praa•suh•tee
RECIPROCITY
means today for you, tomorrow for me.
An ancient principle used by the Inca culture of the indigenous South Americans.
Relationships and partnerships are the jewels that last a lifetime.
RECIPROCITY is a collective of international jewelry designers working together to create a mine-to-market project by directly collaborating and partnering with artisanal miners from Peru. We aim to show that a responsible traceable gold supply chain is possible and intend to elevate and celebrate its reciprocal benefits, aiming to tip the scales more equitably amongst all the parties involved in the jewelry industry value chain.
Every year for NYC Jewelry Week, we create an exhibition featuring unique jewelry pieces created using gold mined without the use of mercury. This responsibly mined gold is sourced by Andrea directly from the mining collective AMATAF based the Madre de Dios Region in the Peruvian Amazon and other responsible mining she has been training during the last years. By paying a fair price for the miners’ efforts towards a more sustainable mining model, training them and by giving them access to the international gold market with our grouped gold purchase for the show, we are motivating more miners to work responsibly in the region.
Every Reciprocity designers knows with 100% certainty the name of the person who mined their gold and the concession it came from. Meeting the miners over zoom creates tangible and valuable interpersonal human
connections above and beyond the industry standard.
We show that a more responsible future is possible for the jewelry industry .
A clear path exists to a gold supply chain with unprecedented levels of transparency and traceability, benefitting miners, designers, customers and nature alike.
A distorted vision of what is valuable has allowed the proliferation of an illegal gold mining industry, often leading to social exploitation and environmental destruction in the name of gold. The beauty of this precious metal is quite dulled in that context. The Amazon region of Peru and Latin
Interpol, 2022
The Mercury Issue
- Around 40-50% of the gold mining industry in Peru is composed of artisanal small-scale gold miners (ASGM) who have been working with mercury for centuries.
- Mercury is a toxic pollutant used to extract gold from ore as a stable amalgam. The amalgam is then heated to evaporate the mercury and isolate the gold. 3 times as much mercury is needed per unit of gold mined that way. In most artisanal mining regions, mercury is abundant and inexpensive, sourced through a variety of industrial supply chains or mined directly from cinnabar, making it a readily available tool for gold mining.
- When mercury is released into the environment it can be inhaled by miners and other people living in surrounding communities. Mercury exposure can cause a variety of health problems, including impaired cognitive function, neurological damage, kidney damage, and physical deformities in children and fetuses.
- The risks of mercury exposure are compounded by the high levels of mercury that accumulate in fish and other food supplies in ASGM communities. More than 180 tons are expelled to the ecosystems in Madre de Dios each year, the area of the Peruvian Amazon most affected by artisanal gold mining and its negative by-product: mercury pollution and deforestation.
- In 2012 77.9% of the population in Madre de Dios had abnormally high levels of mercury in their blood (CAMEP, 2013).
- Gold shops or ‘acopiadores’ test for traces of mercury to authenticate gold before buying it from miners, making gold mined without mercury impossible to sell locally, and stressing the importance of securing access to international gold markets for these responsible miners.
MEETING A RESPONSIBLE MINER
In 2019, Peruvian jewelry designer Andrea Jose traveled to Madre de Dios to meet Pedro Ynfantes, the first artisanal miner in that region to be trained by New York NGO Pure Earth to mine gold without the use of mercury and practice reforestation on his mining concessions.
Don Pedro settled in the region over 30 years ago, and mining was the only work available. For him mining isn’t just looking for gold, it is the only way to survive and prosper.
Thanks to Pure Earth’s training, he no longer uses mercury in his work, relying instead on gravity and shaking tables to separate the flecks of gold from the sand and soil. While visiting his concession to buy his gold Andrea taught Don Pedro smelting techniques to fuse the gold dust into shiny nuggets more conducive to sale, and proceeded to place the first responsibly mined gold purchase from the region for the international market.
His example and success has been inspiring more miners to adopt responsible mining practices in Madre de Dios.