Gioielleria Belloni

ARM and FLO are pleased to announce the publication of the new Fairtrade and Fairmined Standard for Gold from Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, including associated precious metals and the formalizing of their partnership.

ARM and FLO have worked together to develop this new standard and create market access for gold products which support the social, environmental and economic development of artisanal and smallscale mining (ASM) communities. The standard is based on ARM’s Standard Zero, which was developed and tested over a 3-year period, involving extensive consultation and testing at 9 pilot sites.

In 2009 a Joint Standards Subcommittee with membership from ARM´s Technical Committee and FLO’s Standards Committee was established and developed the draft standard, which was publically consulted with producers, miners, traders and NGOs. Both FLO and ARM boards approved the joint mining partnership and the Standard in December 2009, following approval by the FLO Standards Committee and ARM Technical Committee.

The scope of this Standard will be for ASM organisations from Latin America, except for areas that are temporarily excluded. Scoping studies are being conducted to check the feasibility of using the Fairtrade and Fairmined gold standard in Africa and also to extend the Standard to Asia in the future.
The partnership between FLO and ARM will enable both organisations to meet shared strategic objectives: ARM developing supply and Fairtrade Labelling creating demand for gold. The partnership will be communicated on product via a co-labelling using both the FAIRTRADE and FAIRMINED Marks.

For more information, please contact:
ARM Website: www.communitymining.org
FLO Website: www.fairtrade.net