AGC in the NYT (Artisanal Gold Council in the New York Times)
By Artisanal Gold Council - June 29, 2020
The Artisanal Gold Council made the New York Times on Friday in a Thomson Reuters story that highlighted two of the initiatives the AGC set in motion to help artisanal miners affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Published June 26 by Johannesburg-based mining correspondent Helen Reid and picked up by newspapers (including Canada’s Globe and Mail) and news sites (including Kitco news) around the world, the article focussed on the disparity between world gold prices and those paid to artisanal miners in the field, using data from the AGC’s field gold prices database to illustrate the disparities in different countries.
This gap between international prices and those paid to artisanal producers is the result of gold supply chains freezing up as borders closed and flights were grounded in the worldwide effort to contain COVID-19. The graphics accompanying the article were particularly effective in communicating the enormous gap between world and local field prices.
The article further describes an AGC initiative to restart the gold supply chain in Burkina Faso by directly purchasing and then exporting an 800g test parcel of gold. If all goes well with this pilot export, the AGC plans to scale the effort up to a 20 kg purchase and export in the next round.
By getting gold flowing again, the AGC plans to bring field prices back to their pre-COVID levels.
“We aim for speed and to get things done in the field. We are very field focussed,” said AGC’s executive Director Dr. Kevin Telmer, “and that’s what this article shows. The AGC is all about action in the field and stuff that is meaningful to miners.”
The balance of the article covered the World Bank’s soon to be announced $15 million emergency relief fund for artisanal miners.