Since 2006, YTS has worked with UNIDO, UNEP, the Blacksmith Institute, and other donors to support the Government of Indonesia (GOI) to reduce mercury use in artisanal gold mining, by conducting mercury-recycling interventions, and by carrying out action-research into practical methods of mercury-free processing. In 2014, YTS first began to pioneer a new method of gravity concentration that uses a natural fibre (ijuk) as a filtration mechanism for slurry that effectively separates lighter minerals from heavier minerals while retaining microscopic gold in the concentrate produced. YTS has pioneered the use of this method at hard-rock processing sites, and recommends its use as an alternative to the practice of whole ore amalgamation. We have named this process the ‘Manado Method’ in recognition of the traditional and on-going use of the ijuk material by alluvial miners in Northern Sulawesi