Fairmined Silver - 999.5 ‰ Fine Silver - Casting Grain

Purity: 999.5 ‰ fine silver

Shape: Refined granulate with a mixed grain size of approx. 0.2 - 4 mm. This casting grain is ideally suitable for jewelers, goldsmiths and manufacturers for smelting, alloying and casting and ultimately for the production of semi-finished products and finished jewelry.

Production: Granules are often an intermediate product on the way from mine gold or silver to the inished piece of jewelry. The granules are produced after melting, when the liquid fine gold or silver drips through a hot sieve into water and solidifies into small spheres in the process. The resulting gold or silver pellets look like small nuggets from the gold digger era. Goldsmiths and jewelry manufacturers can easily weigh out the required amount of fine gold or fine silver and add it to alloys to produce semi-finished products.

Certification: The fine silver contained in this product is responsibly mined by Fairmined certified Artisanal & Small-scale Mining Organizations (ASMOs), fairly traded and certified according to the Fairmined Standard for Gold from Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, including Associated Precious Metals of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM).

For details, see www.fairmined.org/the-fairmined-standard/

Social Premium: 100 USD per kilogramm of pure silver (already included in our pricing)

Fairmined certified silver is very scarce and precious, as it is only found as a (noble!) by-product in Fairmined certified gold mining. When 1 kilogram of gold is mined, only about 80 - 150 grams of silver are recovered. So we need to sell 7 to 12 times more gold than silver! Refining small amounts of silver physically segregated from other silver is expensive. Fairmined certified 'pure play' silver mines do not exist, as fair trade concepts are always about empowering small producers. Silver mining is mainly a large-scale industrial activity, as the sales price of silver is too low and the extraction costs too high to be viable for small-scale mining.

About Fairmined: Fairmined is a product seal that certifies gold and silver from responsible artisanal & small-scale mining organizations. The objective is to bring about positive change to small-scale mining, promote sustainable social-economic development, ensure environmental protection and give everyone access to responsibly mined gold and silver. The Fairmined certification system is secured by independent, accredited auditing organisations. This ensures that the mining organizations comply with the requirements of the Fairmined Standard. The entire supply chain is audited, which includes all companies working with and making claims about Fairmined Gold and Fairmined Silver, from the mine to the finished piece of jewelry.

Benefits for mining communities:

• A guaranteed minimum price of 95 % of the London Bullion Market price for gold and silver (Fairever even pays 96 % to 99 % for gold and 100 % to 160 % for silver!)
• A premium for better living and working conditions and community development
• Investment in organisational and social development and environmental protection

The Fairmined initiative was founded by the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), an international non-governmental organization that is regarded as a pioneer and leading organisation in the field of responsible artisanal & small-scale gold mining since its foundation in 2004. ARM supports this form of mining to make it a legal, organized and profitable activity that works with efficient technologies and is socially and environmentally responsible.

To achieve this goal, the Fairmined Initiative works with all relevant stakeholders throughout the supply chain: From artisanal mines to legislators, manufacturers, jewelers and consumers. This stakeholder forum is the largest in this area and represents the various perspectives of the respective groups in a joint programme.

You'll find detailed information about the work of ARM, the Fairmined Standard and its benefits for artisanal and small-scale mining organisations at www.fairmined.org.

Origin: Iquira, Colombia. The Iquira mining organization is located in the south-west of Colombia in the Department of Huila, which is also a coffee growing area. It is operated as a classic underground mine and its full name Cooperativa Multiactiva Agrominera del Municipio de Iquira already reveals a special feature. Multiactiva means that the employees pursue several activities. The employees alternate as needed between working in artisanal mining and working on the coffee plantations.

Packaging: We put the ordered precious metals into resealable and recyclable transparent plastic bags. On the product label you'll find all the relevant details.