The challenge
Small-scale gold mining around Baguio relies on two of the most dangerous chemicals in the trade: cyanide to leach the gold and mercury to amalgamate it. The residues flow straight into the rivers that downstream communities drink from, irrigate with, and fish.
Mercury is especially cruel — it accumulates in fish and damages children’s developing brains for generations. And this isn’t a problem a household filter can fix. It has to be solved at the source, in the chemistry itself.
Our solution
Our chemists are developing a green-chemistry extraction method that replaces cyanide with a safer process miners can actually adopt — because a solution that destroys livelihoods will never last. We pair the lab work with field validation alongside AppelGlobal, who pioneered mercury-free gold methods.
It’s deliberately low-cost to prove: under $500 to demonstrate the core method, then scale what works.
Who does what
We are force multipliers, not occupiers — the local partner leads and we supply the science, the design, and the funding.
- Develop and test the extraction chemistry
- Model the geochemistry (PHREEQC) and toxin pathways
- Validate in the field and document results
- Publish a method miners and regulators can trust
- Provide mining-site access and context (AppelGlobal)
- Engage the mining cooperatives
- Trial the method in real operations
The team behind it
Volunteer scientists and engineers donating their expertise to this project — click anyone to see their work.
From the field
