WEBINAR - Best management practices in the use of cyanide in artisanal and small-scale gold mining - 25 January 2022

The UNEP Global Mercury Partnership and its area of work on Mercury in Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining, together with the planetGOLD Programme, jointly organized an online information-sharing session dedicated to best management practices in the use of cyanide on Tuesday 25 January 2022.
 
As the use of cyanide becomes more prevalent in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector worldwide, there is an urgent need to provide miners, government regulators and other stakeholders with practical information to support safer cyanide use and management, where its use in ASGM is legally allowed. 
 
The webinar featured virtual presentation and discussion of two new important guidance resources. The first was developed under the GEF-funded planetGOLD programme together with Pact, and addresses best practices in cyanide management for small-scale gold mining. The second, developed by the Global Mercury Partnership and the Minamata Convention Secretariat, provides best practices and recommendations for the management of ASGM tailings, including ways to avoid the worst practice of using cyanide on mercury-contaminated tailings.

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Agenda for the event:

• The International Management Code and its Implications for ASGM, by Eric Schwamberger, International Cyanide Management Institute
• Best management practices for the use of cyanide in ASGM, by Daniel Stapper, PACT. 
• Best practices and recommendations for management of ASGM tailings, by Malgorzata Stylo, UNEP

The event was facilitated by Susan Keane, Co-lead of the ASGM Partnership Area, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Richard Gutierrez, Secretariat of the Minamata Convention and Kenneth Davis, UNEP.

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Resources mentioned during the event:

• Best Management Practices for Cyanide Use in the Small-Scale Gold Mining Sector
• Guidance document on the management of artisanal and small-scale gold mining tailings - Minamata Convention Document UNEP/MC/COP.4/INF/6
• Guidance on the management of contaminated sites - Minamata Convention Document UNEP/MC/COP.3/8/Rev.1
• "Can Cyanide be a Responsible Alternative to Mercury for planetGOLD Communities?" - Post by Daniel Stapper on the planetGOLD website 
• "Remote sensing in support of artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) policy development, implementation and evaluation"
• "Promoting Responsible Recovery and Handling of Mercury from Contaminated Artisanal Gold Mining Tailings in Colombia", Technical Report on Mercury Recovery from Tailings, Pure Earth

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Speakers biographies:

Eric Schwamberger is Senior Vice President of the International Cyanide Management Institute. Dr. Schwamberger has 30 years experience managing Environmental, Health & Safety programs at mining and other industrial facilities throughout the world including the United States, Canada, Africa, South America and the South Pacific. Earlier in his career, Dr. Schwamberger worked as a a research scientist for the CSIRO in Australia, and served in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Niger. A graduate of Purdue University, Dr. Schwamberger holds a Master of Science in Soil Science and Ph.D. in Soil Chemistry from the University of Kentucky.

Daniel Stapper is Manager of Pact's Mines to Markets program, which has more than 15 years track-record of delivering development solutions in the Artisanal and Small-scale Mining Sector (“ASM”). Daniel is a geo-scientist with extensive work experience in Africa, Asia and South America. Mr Stapper manages Pact’s portfolio of gold projects, from Ghana to Mali and Mauritania, as well as Indonesia and Ecuador. Pact’s gold projects focus on developing safer and more responsible gold production and trade, including in support of mercury-free artisanal gold. Prior to working with Pact, Daniel worked as a GIS analyst and Environmental Impact Assessment specialist, with Golder Associates Ltd., an environmental engineering consultancy based in Canada. Prior to this work, Mr. Stapper was a co-founding director of the Artisanal Gold Council, with whom he co-authored the UNEP-funded Publication ‘Reducing Mercury Use in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining’. Mr. Stapper is Canadian and shares his time between Quebec and Paris, France. Mr. Stapper completed an MSc. on Mercury Use and Fate from ASGM in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia (University of Victoria, BC Canada), following a BSc. in biology and geomatics.

Malgorzata Stylo is an Associate Programme Management Officer at United Nations Environment Programme, Chemicals and Health Branch, based in Geneva. Bridging science with policy through effective communication is Malgorzata's main professional focus. Malgorzata has inter-disciplinary background, she holds PhD in Environmental Sciences from EPFL and Executive Certificate in Environmental Governance from Graduate Institute, and has over 8 years of experience working in the area of environmental science, research and governance. At UNEP, she is supporting over 30 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, by providing technical assistance to their national efforts to eliminate mercury use in artisanal and small scale gold mining. Prior to joining UN she worked at EPFL where her research focused on finding bioremediation solutions to heavy metal contaminated sites. Being a recreational diver, she is also passionate about marine protection and ecosystem conservation.