Tucked between two desert ridges in southern Peru, Relave looks like any of the hundreds of ramshackle mining towns that blight the landscape in the world's sixth-largest gold exporter.
Its name in Spanish means "tailings," a nod to the heaps of mining waste that the town, a sprawling collection of wooden shacks and simple concrete huts, sits upon.
But Relave is also home to Aurelsa — one of the first small-scale mines in the world to produce gold certified and marketed as "ethical" as part of a program aimed at reducing the harmful impact of illegal mining in mineral-rich developing countries.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.