Fairtrade certified gold is now part of the Fairphone 2 supply chain. Fairphone 2 owners are supporting Fairtrade gold miners and their communities in Peru.
From the beginning, when it was still a campaign started by Waag, Fairphone has been focused on mapping the supply chain, tracing the materials that are used in phones and making improvements step-by-step. In terms of mining, the top priority is with the four conflict minerals. With the first Fairphone, the company identified (and continues to support) initiatives for sourcing conflict-free tin and tantalum. In parallel to developing the Fairphone 2, it turned its attention to tungsten and gold.
As soon as Fairphone started digging deeper into the gold supply chain, it realized that finding a fairer means of sourcing gold would be quite a challenge. To start, there were no existing supply chain initiatives that they could join to source conflict-free gold from the DRC – and setting up one from scratch was simply beyond their scope. However, there was one responsible mining initiative that they could possibly connect to the Fairphone supply chain: Fairtrade certified gold. While it’s not sourced from a conflict area, what’s especially attractive about Fairtrade is the amount of emphasis put on improving working conditions and providing direct developmental impact for artisanal miners.
Read the complete blogpost at the Fairphone website.
