One of the "Golden Rules" principles says mining companies should not operate in protected areas, fragile ecosystems, or other areas of high conservation or ecological value. Infinito Gold clearly did not get the message. They are trying to impose an open-pit gold mine on communities in the Agua y Paz (Water and Peace) Biosphere Reserve in Costa Rica.

Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act yesterday with some important provisions for the effort to clean up mining. This includes provisions we pushed that should help allow consumers to know if their gold jewelry is tainted with human rights violations and atrocities in the Congo basin.

Afghanistan could become the latest country to see conflict bloom in the name of mining. The Pentagon has been busy helping promote the country as a potential new mining bonanza worth $1 trillion. The potential is there -- maybe for mining companies to make lots of money, but also for mining to fuel conflict and cause further disasters for communities and the environment. Afghani Blood Gold could be on its way.

A tragedy for communities in northern Nigerian has revealed some of the hidden costs of gold jewelry.  Over 160 people, mainly children, have died in Nigeria from exposure to lead released by small-scale gold mining. Looks like Zamfara state in Nigeria is another place where gold is tinged with the blood of poisoned communities.

I'm probably not the only one to have been scrambling to figure out what to do for my mother for Mother's Day. You want to give her something nice and ethical -- not jewelry made from gold mining that has poisoned communities and destroyed livelihoods.

Toby Pomeroy's craft-jewelry studio is a signer of the Bristol Bay Protection Pledge and the No Dirty Gold campaign's Golden Rules.  In this guest blog post, he explains why he signed the pledge.

I signed on to the Bristol Bay pledge as an action to express my commitment that we must, as responsible members of the family of man, act consistently with the restoration and preservation of the bounty we have inherited so that our children's children can marvel at the same wonders that have been here millennia before us. 

The retail giant Zales and a number of other jewelry companies have added to the growing opposition to mining in the Bristol Bay watershed and the planned Pebble mine.  They have signed the Bristol Bay Protection Pledge and so stated their opposition to the copper-gold mine that would threaten one of the best salmon fisheries in the world.  The local communities in Alaska don't want the Pebble mine, and these jewelers are supporting the rights of the communities to protect their livelihoods.

Last month, we told you about the release of Tarnished Gold: assessing the jewelry industry's progress on ethical sourcing of metals. In essence, Tarnished Gold is a report card that evaluates the progress jewelers have made in pursuit of cleaner sources of precious metals.

Some jewelers saw the first report and realized they needed to do more, and tell us more about what they were already doing. So they sent us additional information and assurance about their efforts.

Yesterday we issued an updated report, which notes further advances by four large jewelers and a dozen smaller companies. Eleven small jewelry companies now deserve an "A" rating for their efforts.

For more information:

UPDATE (2/11): The scorecard and grade for Jostens has been corrected on 2/11/10, to reflect their signing of the Bristol Bay Protection Pledge.

When consumers buy jewelry, they don't want their purchase to underwrite environmental destruction; they don't want to support throwing people out of their homes; they don't want their wedding rings to cause the pollution of drinking water.

But consumers have little reliable assurance about the origins of their jewelry purchases. 

Although there have been several steps in the right direction in the six years since the No Dirty Gold campaign was launched.

Today we released Tarnished Gold? Assessing the jewelry industry's progress on the ethical sourcing of metals.  It evaluates the efforts made by jewelers towards responsible sourcing of precious metals.  It is based on responses to a survey sent to the jewelers that had signed on to No Dirty Gold's Golden Rules of Responsible Mining by mid-February 2009, and ot other large jewelry retailers who sold jewelry worth more than $100 million.

Our No Dirty Gold campaign has released a new report on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) of gold and precious metals, The Quest for Responsible Small-scale Gold Mining.  The report compares standards of initiatives aiming for responsibility in ASM of precious metals.

Small-scale mines can have serious community and environmental impacts. But if projects adopt mining standards that are responsible and most precautionary, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) could be a source of more responsibly mined gold. Adopting strong principles and standards for responsible ASM practices may allow miners to minimize harmful impacts and allow ASM to provide a net benefit to communities.

The following is the summary from the report: