Through our Fairmined gold credits pilot with Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) we celebrate multiple wins alongside contributing to the social and environmental progress of the Fairmined certified mining cooperative La Gabriela in Colombia.

Win for responsible miners:

Since 2016, Fairphone has been working hard to connect responsible ASM gold to our supply chains. Since then, we have managed to do so for 9% of the gold used in our Fairphone 4 and 10% in the True Wireless Earbuds. Fairphone bought Fairmined credits for the gold used which could not yet be connected to certified sources. Each Fairmined credit represents one gram of certified gold produced under the strict social and environmental requirements of the Fairmined standard. Through buying Fairmined credits, Fairphone compensates small-scale miners with Fairmined premium to maintain high standards of responsible production. This incentive is significant for small certified mines, as they often face higher barriers connecting with the market, have greater difficulties in getting fair compensation for work, and heavily rely on the premium to keep going. Fairphone contributed almost USD 20,000 of Fairmined premium to the certified La Gabriela mine that could not sell their entire production for the Fairmined premium price. 

Win for Fairphone buyers:

Did you buy a Fairphone 4 or True Wireless Earbuds in 2022? Then your past purchase now directly contributes to La Gabriela’s responsible gold production. Fairphone’s purchase of Fairmined credits enables us to account for the gold which was not yet sourced from certified sources. Whereas the gold from La Gabriela did not directly end up in our products sold, our impact on fair mining for our gold footprint is the same, as small-scale miners receive the Fairmined premium to maintain high standards of responsible production.

“This first collaboration is a great achievement for our Initiative as it proves new players in the gold industry can engage with the ASM sector and contribute to its transformation”

– Morgane Nzelemona, Head of Sustainable markets at the Alliance for Responsible Mining

Win for the industry:

It takes a lot of time and effort to track down everyone involved from product to mine and convince them to use responsible gold sources. Moreover in electronic products, gold is used in very small quantities, spread across many different components with each having their own suppliers and sub-suppliers. Fairmined credits allow companies to easily contribute to responsible production for their full gold consumption. 

The Fairmined credits model provides a flexible way for the gold industry to make an economic, social, and environmental impact in responsible small-scale mining communities and drive the production of responsible ASM gold, without the need to source the gold physically or to make any changes in the existing supply chains of the downstream brands.

You can find out more about our Fairtrade gold efforts and the material flow behind it here.

Read what the experts have to say:

“This first collaboration is a great achievement for our Initiative as it proves new players in the gold industry can engage with the ASM sector and contribute to its transformation. We hope that the Fairmined credits will help fast-track the engagement of the electronics industry and that more actors will follow Fairphone’s inspiring example.” 

– Morgane Nzelemona, Head of Sustainable markets at the Alliance for Responsible Mining. 

“Joining forces with ARM is an important achievement for us. We want to show the electronics industry a different way of creating impact through their material footprint.  Fairmined credits are a way of directly supporting miners and their communities,  and helping to improve the professionalization of artisanal- and small-scale mining. With this, we help to bring more responsible gold on the market, in line with the gold we consume ourselves and cannot yet fully trace or certify. We hope the electronics industry will take note and follow our example to help transform the gold industry.”

– Angela Jorns, Team Lead Fair Materials and Mining at Fairphone