Artisanal And Small-scale Mining Operators Research Articles

Towards sustainable ASM-based livelihoods: The role of institutional arrangements in the formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is an essential livelihood for millions in the Global South. However, this sector faces numerous challenges, including informality, inconsistent policies, and marginalization. Nevertheless, ASM has development opportunities, and its formalization may help to address some of these challenges. This research emphasizes the role of institutions as a mechanism through which artisanal and small-scale miners can become formal, whereby institutions provide rules and put in place incentives and constraints, reduce uncertainty, create means of exercising power, and influence access to opportunities and choices. This paper presents a case study on the formalization program implemented between 2014 and 2020 through a contractual agreement between a large-scale mining company and several ASM local associations in a gold mining project in Buriticá, Antioquia, Colombia. The contractual system allocated specific areas within the mining concession to ASM operators and agreements on extraction methods, marketing of produced ore, access to geological and mining knowledge, technical capacity, and financial assistance. Formalization allowed ASM operators to adopt technical and business procedures that supported their transformation. The study highlights the barriers that need to be overcome by informal artisanal and small-scale miners and their partners to operate in the formal sector. The Buriticá case study provides relevant insights into the formalization process, identifies various aspects that contribute to the ASM development process, and presents some challenges that policymakers and other stakeholders must consider to address the challenges within the ASM sector.

Application of triple bottom line concept to artisanal and small-scale mining activities in Wa East District, Ghana

<p align="justify">The artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector offers a supplementary livelihood strategy to agriculture in northern Ghana, acting as a source of capital to support agriculture. However, the sector has been associated with several adverse environmental and socio-economic consequences, making its sustainability dimensions extremely complex and inconclusive across the literature. This study sought to investigate the dynamics of ASM operations in line with the Triple Bottom Line concept. Specifically, the paper explored the influence of the small-scale mining law and institutional framework on ASM operations, examined the relationship between the economic benefits of ASM and other livelihood activities, and assessed the adverse environmental effects of ASM in the host communities. The research design was a mixed method and cross-sectional survey. Household questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation were the main primary data collection techniques. Secondary data were provided by satellite images sourced from USGS Earth Explorer. They were analysed to determine the land cover types. The results indicate that the relevant regulatory state institutions lag behind their law enforcement duty. The ASM is a lucrative job that provides quick income to the youth. However, ASM activities affect food crop farming and decrease the quantity and quality of vegetation causing variations in land cover. Consequently, the host communities and ASM cooperatives have employed some land reclamation strategies. The study recommends increased government support to the relevant regulatory state institutions to constantly monitor and sanitize the ASM sector. To eradicate illegal mining, the study advocates for multi-stakeholder consultation and action.</p>

Artisanal and small-scale mining in Tanzania and health implications: A policy perspective

The mineral sector, especially its small-scale subsector, has become significant in the emerging economies of the Global South. Tanzania is the focus of this policy exposition paper because, aside from Ghana and South Africa, Tanzania is ranked 4th in Africa in terms of its mineral deposits and small-scale mining activities. The focus is also on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) because ASM operations have significantly increased in recent times across this mineral-rich country of East Africa. This is done against a negative backdrop-labelling of ASM as unsustainable, environmentally unfriendly, inefficient, and illegal. Tanzania has made some progress to respond to some of the challenges in the mining sector to improve the micro and macroeconomics of the country. Some areas remain challenging including the lack of proper environmental health education for the ASM miners; the lack of clear national-level policies to guide health-related matters in the ASM subsector, and the small capital investment of the ASM subsector to support healthy mining practices. The details related to the persistence of these challenges are not well known, particularly those that pertain to policymaking. This article attempts to evaluate the policy environment of the ASM subsector in Tanzania and propose appropriate actions for the future of mineral resource policymaking in Tanzania.

Risk factors limiting access to formal financing: Perceptions from artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) operators in Nigeria

This paper reflects critically on why individuals engaged in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) struggle to obtain formal loans. Several studies have concentrated on the perceptions of formal lenders on the risks associated with providing loans to this group of miners. It is argued in this paper that understanding more about the limiting factors from the perspectives of ASM operators will provide better guidance when formal lenders scrutinise the requirements for issuing loans to this group of borrowers. In this study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with senior management officers at the Nigeria Bank of Industry (BOI) and a selected number of miners within the study area. The findings indicate that the inability of ASM operators to prove the feasibility of their operations, lack of knowledge of efficient ore reserve estimation methods, as well as lack of physical collateral are amongst the factors that make them unfavourable clients to formal lenders. The paper recommends that government considers strengthening miners’ organisations and cooperatives as a way of enhancing the access of ASM operators to formal finance.

“We have done nothing wrong”: Youth miners’ perceptions of the environmental consequences of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in Ghana

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has gained prominence across sub-Saharan Africa for generating employment and ameliorating hardships for rural populations, especially, the youth. However, the associated destructive environmental impacts raise questions about its suitability as employment avenue for the youth when considered within the mining-sustainability discourse. This article contributes to the discussions on ASM and its effect on the environment by investigating how youth artisanal and small-scale miners perceive the environmental implications of their own operations in the Upper East Region (UER) of Ghana. The study adopted a qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with forty-five (45) ‘youth’ miners and three (3) purposely sampled government officials. Overall, the findings suggest that ASM operators do not consider themselves perpetrators of environmental destruction. More importantly, most youth ASM operators seem to lack considerable knowledge on the long-term harm their work may be posing to the environment. Those who acknowledged that activities resulted in environmental degradation, argued that their financial needs for survival supersedes any immediate or long-term environmental cost. Given the low level of education among miners about the environmental implications of their activities, the findings call for an urgent need for proper education among ASM miners. Furthermore, in lure of the fact that government's policy of criminalizing ASM seems to constantly fail, there needs to be a shift from criminalizing ASM operators towards collaborative engagements in their quest to protect Ghana's fragile environment.

Gender and artisanal and small-scale mining: Exploring women's livelihood and occupational roles in formalised settings

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has often been touted as an employment-creation avenue for millions of operators worldwide, including women. This employment-generation narrative has, however, been occasioned by the immense scholarly focus on the informal and labour-intensive segments of ASM operations. Exploring the livelihood and occupational roles of women in formalised ASM settings, data for our inquiry comes mainly from employees of two formalised ASM firms in Ghana. Our study suggests that contrary to the dominant narrative, women's employment avenues remain minimal in formalised settings through capital-labour substitution mechanisms. Our findings further indicate that women play differentiated, high positional roles in formalised settings, contrary to their lower-to-middle-rung roles in ASM labour structures in informal settings. In addition, occupational health and safety mechanisms differ from those at informal ASM sites. Disaggregation of employment figures in relation to female workers in ASM would help to tailor specific policies that encapsulate the duality of operations and attract more women into formalised settings where employment conditions are better.

Defying the gloom: In search of the ‘golden’ practices of small-scale mining operations

Dominant narratives on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) often portray mining regions as ‘informal’ zones that suffer massively from environmental degradation problems. Such insistence on the poor environmental performance of ASM zones has dovetailed with a lack of scholarly attention to some of the ‘golden’ environmental management practices taking place in some of these mining areas. In this paper, we explore how the operations of a formalised (registered) small-scale mining operator in Ghana, as objectified in its obligatory and ethical functions, contribute to reducing pollution and mine-degraded landscapes, which have long been viewed as the inevitable consequence of ASM. Emphasizing how the dynamic interplay between resources and environmental demands may come to support public policy, our study shows how mutually constituting demands on mining in highly differentiated contexts could translate into productive outcomes. Contrary to the popular perception that ASM operators are not good stewards of the environment, findings from our study suggest that these operators can be caretakers of the environment and local communities through land reclamation mechanisms. Localisation of labour could, however, contribute to more sustainable livelihoods in mining communities and help curb rising community tensions.

Safety concerns and occupational health hazards of women in artisanal and small-scale mining in Ghana

Due to the organisational logics and structures within artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech, labour-intensive mineral extraction and processing – being male-dominated, women's health and safety concerns are poorly understood and not given the needed practical and policy considerations. This paper draws on field observations and interviews with 49 women directly engaged in artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Prestea-Bondaye mining area in Ghana to explore the safety concerns of women in the ASM sector and their exposure to occupational health risks at the informal ASM sites. Lack of regulations and guidelines regarding safety protocols at mine sites, non-usage of personal protective equipment, odd working hours and poor physical conditions were found to be the primary occupational health and safety (OHS) concerns of women in ASM. Other findings, including the creation of risky and dangerous pits within the abandoned open mine pits of large-scale mining companies, carrying of mineralised materials in head pans, and the lack of childcare support at ASM sites, also exposed women to various occupational health and safety risks. We argue that women's health and safety needs in ASM stand to benefit when ASM operations are formalised as well as the gendered structures that influence sex roles and decision-making at mine sites are transformed. We call for a practical decentralised approach that builds on collaboration between relevant local institutions to conduct regular monitoring at ASM sites and to ensure ASM employers comply with OHS regulations.

Mineral exhaustion, livelihoods and persistence of vulnerabilities in ASM settings

Formalisation of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector has come to dominate the discourse on mineral exhaustion, livelihoods, and the persistence of vulnerabilities in ASM settings. Often touted as a panacea to curbing the excesses of informal mining operations, the calls for the formalisation of ASM operations continue unabated. In this paper, we explore how the operations and management practices in the growing formal ASM sector are formulated and (re)negotiated in practice. We develop our contribution in the context of a formalised small-scale mining operator in Ghana, focussing on its organizing practices and operational outcomes within the contingencies of organizing to explicate how livelihoods and vulnerabilities persisting in ASM settings are identified and labelled in practice. The data for our inquiry come from ethnographic interviews with management and staff. Our findings, in emphasizing, but also nuancing, what has come to be known as the ‘mineral-exhaustion-vulnerabilities’, provide insights into how the organizing practices induced by formalisation cohere to support socio-economic and environmental mitigation efforts. We note that the persistence of vulnerabilities, rather than the lack of mitigation mechanisms, is largely influenced by profligacy and the incipient lack of investment culture. We conclude by highlighting the need for sustainability mechanisms, based on exit strategies for ASM operators, to tie in with comprehensive policies and lessons on income diversification and investment.

Beyond the doom: Sustainable water management practices of small-scale mining operations

Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) is often implicated as a source of pollution to water systems. In this paper, we explore the water management systems of a formalised small-scale mining operator in Ghana to explicate how its operational activities and organising routines contribute to sustainable water management in practice. Emphasizing how sustainable management of water bodies play out in organising, our study highlights the underpinning mechanisms shaping the shift to environmentally sustainable operations. By unpacking the complex practices of water management in ASM operations, the study extends understanding of how sustainability driven practices emerge and comes to be identified and labelled in the context of an industry historically tagged as an ‘enemy of the environment’, and the consequences that follow. Thus, contrary to the dominant logic of stigmatizing ASM as water polluting champions, our study suggests that ASM operators could be caretakers of water bodies and the environment. We conclude by highlighting implications for policy on sustainable water management.

Fostering the Sustainability of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) of Barite in Nasarawa State, Nigeria

The exploration and mining of Nigerian barite are primarily by artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) whose operations are characterized by poor productivity. As a result, the quantity and quality of barites produced do not satisfy the nation’s oil sector demands and other industries that require the mineral. This situation leads to massive importation of the mineral with negative impact on the country’s drive toward increasing the contribution of solid minerals to the gross domestic product (GDP). This study reviews the existing policies and government interventions on ASM of Nigerian barite; evaluates the operations of ASM through a survey of mines in Nasarawa state, Nigeria; identifies factors that affect sustainability of the sector and proffers solutions to foster sustainability of ASM of barite in the region. The study adopted the 4Is optimization technique (Information gathering, Interpretation, Implication, and Implementation) through personal interactions with the stakeholders at the barite mining sites, and government agencies, regarding policies and interventions specific to ASM of barite. Challenges identified include: weak implementation and enforcement of mining laws; inadequate support from government and development partners; poor access to mining equipment and technology; poor infrastructure (access road, water, electricity); poor pricing of products (marketing challenges); poor remuneration of mine workers; poor mining skills; inadequate formal education; limited awareness on environmental health and safety hazards; fragility and conflict; insufficient information and data on mines and miners; security issues; lack of access to finance; lack of formalization of operations and poor legal framework for operations. The strategies suggested for fostering the sustainability of ASM of barites include: enhanced policy and legislation formulation and implementation, strengthening of institutions, formalization of ASM operations, training of miners, awareness campaign, improvement in environmental and safety of operations, empowerment and support by government and development partners for individual miners and processors and organized groups within the sector (such as Miners Association of Nigeria, Association of Miner and Processors of Barite, AMAPOB). Implementation of these strategies will lead to sustainable operations of the sector and hence improved rural livelihoods, stimulation of entrepreneurship in an environmentally responsible manner, and improvement in the contribution of the mineral sector to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), and hence national development.

Prospective Analysis of Artisanal Mining in the Santa Rita Village: Municipality of Andes, Antioquia

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) of gold has adversely affected the environment and human health for decades, mostly due to excessive use of mercury. With the enactment of the zero mercury law, miners in Columbia began to replace mercury with cyanide and improve their processes. We analyzed the extraction dynamics, based on what had been identified in the municipality of Andes (Colombia) and indexed the pollutant loads of discharges from different small-scale mining gold plants. Gold production for the year 2022 in the municipality of Andes is predicted to total 9811.4 g. None of the sampled small-scale mines currently complies with the permissible parameters for ions and metals in industrial discharges; however, the contamination levels have been reduced for the: La Y mine by 18%, Dorado mine by 13.3%, El Molino by 8.6%, and La Soledad mine by 2.7%. This shows that the ASM operators in the municipality of Andes are beginning to implement cleaner production strategies.

Artisanal and small-scale mining activities as post-mining land use in abandoned mine sites: a case of Giyani and Musina areas, Limpopo Province of South Africa

South Africa has many artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities that some are registered and others informal and illegal. This paper presents an overview of ASM operations in the vicinity of abandoned mine sites found in Giyani and Musina areas, Limpopo Provine of South Africa. It looks at the mining processes, environmental problems, and health and safety risks of ASM in the area. It also provideds a discussion of practical ways of dealing with the problems of artisanal and small-scale mining operations in a harmonized way with the rehabilitation of the abandoned mine sites. The exploitation of waste rock dumps for aggregate production in Musina demonstrated that formalized ASM activities can be the best alternative uses of the abandoned mine sites. However, artisanal gold mining around Giyani revealed the health and safety risks and environmental problems of these operations. The artisanal gold mining activities worsened the health and safety and the environmental problems of the abandoned mine sites. Therefore, this paper recommends that the efforts of coming up with strategies to formalize and regulate artisanal mining in South Africa be deepened for these activities to be accepteble as sustainable as post-mining land-uses in abandoned mines.

The ‘Zambia Model’: A blueprint for formalizing artisanal and small-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa?

This paper outlines a framework for facilitating the formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech, labour-intensive mineral processing and extraction – in sub-Saharan Africa. It identifies taxation as a potential driver for formalization across the region because the financial gains would appeal to host governments on the one hand, and, on the other hand, it would energize ASM operators, most of whom are desperate to work in a more structured and regulated environment. Experiences from Zambia, where attempts have been made in recent years to control and regulate pockets of surging gold rush activity, are drawn upon to debate the case for making taxation more of a centrepiece of ASM formalization programs in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Illegal Artisanal and Small-scale mining (Galamsey) ‘Menace’ in Ghana: Is Military-Style Approach the Answer?

The Illegal Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (Galamsey) ‘Menace’ in Ghana: Is a Military-Style Approach the Answer?The artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector accounts for approximately 31 percent of the total gold production in Ghana and plays a significant role in the economic development of the country. However, the recent alarming levels of water pollution associated with illegal ASM operations have ignited serious debate, sustained media campaigns, mounting public condemnation, and sustained pressure on the government to find a lasting solution to ASM operations in the country. In response, the government has turned to the use of a military-style approach (military and police taskforce) to ‘flush out’ illegal ASM operators. Relying on key informant interviews, newspaper reports, and household surveys, this paper investigates the sustainability of the use of a military-style approach to eliminate illegal ASM operations. The evidence suggests that through arrests and confiscation and destruction of mining equipment, the turbidity levels of some water bodies improved. However, due to the powerful influence some politicians and traditional authorities command in the ASM sector, the military-style approach often becomes ineffective leading to a ‘catch and release’ pattern, which is discriminatory and promotes inequalities with disproportionate impacts on poor illegal ASM communities. The findings show that the use of a military-style approach fails to address the most fundamental issues, such as poor economic conditions, increased youth unemployment, and illiteracy which drive people into illegal ASM. Moreover, government forces are not immune to corruption. We argue that a military-style approach is not a sustainable solution to the illegal ASM ‘menace’ in Ghana. Therefore, we recommend the development and implementation of a comprehensive rural development plan that addresses dimensions of poverty, such as youth unemployment, rural illiteracy, and joblessness.

‘Centres of excellence’ for artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Tanzania: Assumptions around artisanal entrepreneurship and formalization

The Africa Mining Vision reiterates the importance of training centres or ‘centres of excellence’ (COEs) for artisanal and small-scale mining but historically, these have had mixed results, partly due to a lack of understanding of demand for services. Recently, understanding of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) organizational and financial structures has improved, allowing for a more nuanced comparison of formalization policies that emphasize the ‘entrepreneurial’ nature of ASM operators and those that foreground the importance of poverty as a driving factor. With World Bank support, Tanzania has recently established several COEs including two for the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector. This article examines the potentials of these centres, based on key informant interviews, as well as a literature review of experiences from other African countries. Further, we analyse activities planned at COEs, within the Tanzanian institutional and policy context, which tends to treat ASM as ‘entrepreneurs’. We explore implications of the Tanzanian approach for potential formalization of ASM and transformation of ASM operators into medium-scale mining firms; and identify some institutional tensions and risks involved in implementing the COE approach.

Gold in Ghana: The effects of changes in large-scale mining on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)

Two scales of gold mining operations, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and large-scale mining, have operated side by side in Ghana for decades. In the past, the two co-existed on the same mineralised land without much contact or conflict, as large-scale mining occurred underground and ASM operated mainly on the surface. With the former’s transition from an underground labour-intensive mining operation to capital-intensive surface activity, however, opportunities for wage employment have reduced leading to labour retrenchment. Using an informalisation theoretical framework, and drawing on fieldwork conducted in the three gold mining towns of Obuasi, Prestea and Kenyasi, this paper explores how the interface between large-scale mining and ASM has evolved. It is shown how the loss of wage employment opportunities in large-scale mining has contributed to the proliferation of illegal ASM operations. As large-scale surface mining operations have reduced access to mineralised land by ASM, the latter have encroached on to the concessions of the former resulting in conflicts between these parties. It is ASM rather than large-scale mining, however, that is sustaining local economies in Ghana. As the economic well-being of mining towns is linked largely to the fortune of their mining economies, it is imperative that an innovative approach is adopted by the state in addressing the need for ASMs to access mineralised land.

Has the promise of formalizing artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) failed? The case of Zambia

This paper investigates whether the benefits assumed to flow from the formalization of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector in developing countries actually materialize in contexts where it has taken place. While formalization’s key proponent, Hernando De Soto, avers that it yields benefits, in particular, improved access to capital and government support, this study finds that such benefits accrue only to a limited extent. Using the case of Zambia’s emerald sector, the paper analyzes the initial wave of ASM formalization that took place in the country in the 1980s, and finds that contrary to harnessing benefits for operators, formalization was used as a tool by the state to gain control of the sector and to displace operators to areas with low economic viability. The paper further finds that currently, a lack of state support and a policy framework skewed in favour of large-scale copper mining has worsened the outcomes of ASM operators in Zambia’s emerald sector. As formalization is such an ambitious undertaking, the process requires not only strong political will but also robust implementing institutions, a point that is particularly crucial in sub-Saharan Africa, where the agencies spearheading formalization efforts are often weak and limited in capacity.

‘Ethical gold’ in sub-Saharan Africa: a viable empowerment strategy?

This paper reflects critically on the potential of four parallel ethical gold certification schemes to empower people engaged in poverty-driven artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities in sub-Saharan Africa. It reviews the literature on empowerment to broaden understanding of which groups of miners these certification schemes are targeting and capable of supporting. The industry-led schemes implemented to date seem ideally-suited for multinational companies, whilst NGO-led schemes appear neither capable of breaking down the institutional structures that marginalise ASM operators nor readily adaptable to the African context. No scheme seems truly focused on – and capable of – empowering miners who are suffering extreme hardship and struggling to accumulate earnings. None of the ethical gold certification schemes reviewed here appears capable of sufficiently altering the social dimensions of power, agency and the institutional environment needed in order to empower artisanal and small-scale miners.

The Economic Logic of Persistent Informality: Artisanal and Small‐Scale Mining in the Southern Philippines

ABSTRACTThis article critically evaluates existing causal explanations for the persistence of informality in artisanal and small‐scale mining (ASM). These explanations share a legalistic focus on entry barriers and political impediments that prevent or discourage the formalization of poverty‐driven ASM operators: however, they fail to fully explain cases such as that of the Philippines, where ASM is characterized by differentiation between a poverty‐driven workforce and a dominant stratum of ASM entrepreneurs. Even where limited formalization frameworks provide ASM with a degree of legal recognition, this recognition is usually restricted to these more powerful ASM interests, while excluding the workforce at large. This article therefore proposes an integrative approach to analysing informality in ASM, which complements the existing legalistic focus on entry barriers with a structuralist concern over the exploitation of informal labour. Seen from this perspective, the massive expansion of ASM in the Philippines can be seen as the product of a transition away from capital‐intensive large‐scale mining to a flexible regime of accumulation built around the exploitation of informal ASM labour. This observation highlights the need to pay more critical attention to the economic logic and the vested interests underlying the (selective) persistence of informality in the workforce.