How one company is making money – and jewelry – from abandoned mine sites

A Washington-based public benefit company called Regeneration is looking to clean up land and waterways in the Yukon, B.C. and Alaska – and make money doing it. 

The project uses advanced technology to extract metals from waste material at old mine sites. 

The company has partnered with Apple, Tiffany and Co., and Canadian jewelry company Mejuri, which have agreed to buy metals sourced from legacy mine sites and help fund restoration efforts. 

The project began more than a decade ago with a focus on sites in the North, where decades of placer mining have left heaps of sediment and waste rock in and along streams and rivers. 

CEO Stephen D’Esposito says jewelry and technology companies are aware of environmental issues in the mining industry and interested in being part of the solution. 

“I approached both Tiffany and Apple and said if I could find opportunities in Alaska, in the Yukon, in B.C., to do a project where you go back into legacy sites – sometimes 100 years old – and see if there’s still opportunity to get gold out and restore the site, would you be interested in buying the gold and helping fund stream restoration?” D’Esposito said. “And the answer was yes.” 

The aim was both to extract remaining gold from that waste and re-form streams and replant vegetation – making waters hospitable again for species like salmon and grayling. 

“We’ve seen really amazing results,” said Carly Vynne, a biologist and chief restoration officer with Regeneration. “Sometimes days later, we’ve had anadromous fish coming up to a site.”

Companies like Mejuri see the project as a way to meet their climate and sustainability targets. 

“This is a real opportunity for us to be part of the restoration process,