Empowering Tanzania's artisanal and small‑scale gold mining community.

We help artisanal gold miners in emerging economies transition to mercury-free processing

Safe
Mercury-free processing keeps lakes, rivers, and oceans cleaner, and prevents mercury toxicity in people.
Efficient
Our modern processing techniques capture +80% of the gold in a given ore sample, more than double the 30% capture of mercury processing methods.
Verified
All gold purchased through Mwamba can be traced to its source in the mining area of Northern Tanzania.

Our modern gold processing operations eliminate the use of mercury

We are buiding a network of artisanal and small-scale mining communities in rural Tanzania. We process our partners’ gold using clean and efficient Carbon in Pulp infrastructure.

How it works»
“We know mercury is inefficient, we know it is harmful, but we have no alternative. Mwamba is giving us the opportunity to build ourselves a better future. ”
Bayi Nhonoli, Gold Miner from Ngeza, Tanzania

Bayi is a MWAMBA advocate, helping us to pass a no child-labour & no-mercury agreement with Ngeza town council. In return, Mwamba has agreed to process all of the Ngeza miners' ore.

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Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is the world’s largest source of mercury pollution

the mercury problem»
  • 15 million+ miners
    number of small scale gold miners in over 70 countries, including 4-5 million women and children
  • 1400+ tons of mercury
    are released into the environment through traditional artisanal small-scale gold mining each year
  • 100% reduction in mercury processing
    our impact goal for our partner communities in Tanzania

Mwamba’s model

  • Mercury negative
    Mining communities formerly using traditional toxic mercury processing are now mercury free because of Mwamba’s efforts.
  • Conflict free
    Gold does not come from a conflict zone where it’s sale would perpetuate war. We follow the World Gold Council's Conflict-Free Gold Standard.
  • Responsibly sourced
    Mwamba gold is produced and sourced in a way that respects people and the environment.
  • Fair prices for miners
    Miners receive as much as a 200% increase in payment by partnering with Mwamba.

Gold that makes a difference

We transition Tanzanian mining communities to mercury-free processing, reinvesting profits to improve working and living conditions for those involved.
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We are committed to furthering these UN Sustainable Development Goals through our work

Increasing income and vocational opportunity.
Lifting entire communities out of poverty.
Enabling investment in civic infrastructure.
Eliminating mercury in artisanal mining.
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Partnerships

Global Mercury Partnership
The Global Mercury Partnership is a UNEP initiative working to protect human health and the global environment from the release of mercury by reducing and, where feasible, eradicating global, anthropogenic mercury releases.
planetGOLD
Mwamba is a private sector representative of the planetGOLD Programme Advisory Group. planetGOLD helps artisanal gold miners replace toxic mercury with cleaner techniques, as well as improve access to finance and facilitate the formalization of the sector.
Pix4D
A photogrammetry software suite for drone mapping that allows us to create detailed 3D models of our target communities and project sites. We use Pix4D to assess projects, plan infrastructure development, design mine pits, audit partner mines and size ore stock-piles.