These are the Grand Challenge winners working to conserve the Amazon
Four innovations with the best performance were selected as winners of 'The Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge: The Amazon'
Winners received their awards from CXL’s Paul Buje, and USAID’s Elizabeth Bosman. From left to right: Leigh Cassidy of DRAM Technology; Ever Velasquez and Adam Uliana of ChemFinity Technologies; Diana Gonzalez of ASM Progress App, and Alfonso Rodriguez of Copper Plates are the 4 winning teams from the Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge: The Amazon
December 7, 2022 - Lima, Peru — Four teams were announced as winners in The Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge: The Amazon for their achievements developing new innovations to conserve the Amazon rainforest.
The Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge: The Amazon is a global competition that, through innovation and technology, seeks to transform artisanal and small-scale gold mining into a more environmentally responsible and socially equitable practice. Twelve innovative teams from around the world were selected as finalists in May 2022. Their solutions include microorganisms that capture pollutants produced by mining operations, jewelry made from clean gold, an approach that promotes propagation of bamboo to reclaim devastated areas, solutions to prevent the use of mercury in mining and mobile applications for monitoring, others that allow knowing the origin of the gold and calculating the economic value of the impacts of mining activities.
As part of the initiative, the twelve finalists received initial funding of $50,000 each, which allowed them to develop and test their innovations in various countries of the Amazon region such as Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, and for the last six months they worked together with partners, organizations, and various local communities, to demonstrate their potential in the field. A $300,000 prize fund will be distributed among these four teams, to continue the development and scaling of their solutions.
The winners are:
DRAM Technology (SEM Energy Ltd.) of Aberdeen, Scotland, a patented natural filtration system which is designed to remove contaminants such as heavy metals, organic, inorganic and biological compounds from various types of effluent water, received $100,000.
Porous Polymer Sorbents (ChemFinity Technologies) of New York City, United States, a chemically-selective membrane material to replace mercury in the gold mining process and decontaminate ASGM tailings, received $100,000.
ASM Progress App (Alliance for Responsible Mining) of Antioquia, Colombia, a tool to automate and digitize the collection, analysis and measurement of compliance and indicators of risk management and good practices of ASM using international standards such as CRAFT and Fairmined, will receive $50,000
Copper Plates (Pure Earth) of United States, and implemented by their Colombia office, is a technique that uses silver-coated copper plates to decontaminate ASGM tailings, will receive $50,000
“If we’re going to solve this problem, we have to solve it for everybody, to make this actually work.”said Alex Dehgan, CEO and Co-Founder of Conservation X Labs, the organization implementing the Challenge.
The Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge: The Amazon is possible through a Global Partnership for Development, with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Microsoft , and Esri.
The winners were announced at the Innovation XChange, the Challenge closing event, and a space that allowed the exploration and elevation of innovation and creativity in the global effort to conserve the Amazon rainforest. Over 350 people attended the event in person, and many more joined online. Activities included change-maker talks from world-class leaders, an innovation fair that allowed attendees to learn more about the solutions supported by the Challenge and networking for scientists and entrepreneurs working on new solutions to conserve the Amazon rainforest.
##
About The Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge: The Amazon
Open to a global community of innovators, “The Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge: The Amazon” was launched in 2021 and sought solutions to safeguard ecosystems, protect human health, optimize responsible supply chains and promote the formalization of miners. to achieve social and environmental safeguards. “The Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge: The Amazon” is implemented by Conservation X Labs in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Microsoft, and Esri.
