Artisanal mining

Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM) is emerging as an important socio-economic sector for the rural poor in many developing nations. An artisanal miner or small-scale miner is, in effect, a subsistence miner. They are not officially employed by a mining company, but rather work independently, mining or panning for gold using their own resources. Small-scale mining includes enterprises or individuals that employ workers for mining, but generally working with hand tools.

Artisanal miners often undertake the activity of mining seasonally – for example crops are planted in the rainy season, and mining is pursued in the dry season. However, they also frequently travel to mining areas and work year round.

An estimated 13-20 million men, women, and children from over 50 developing countries are directly engaged in the artisanal mining sector.

Artisanal mining can include activities as simple as panning for gold in rivers, to as complex as development of underground workings and small-scale processing plants. In any of these circumstances, issues can stem from difficulties in achieving regulatory oversight of a large number of small operations (including issues such as security of land tenure for artisanal miners, to enforcement of environment, safety standards, and labour standards).

As a result, child labour and a large number of fatal accidents have been reported in artisanal mines (especially coal mines, gold mines, stone mines). To improve the situation of small-scale miners, organising them in cooperatives and certifying gold may be helpful, write the scientists Pedro Morazán and Marie Müller in the magazine D+C Development and Cooperation.

Globally, artisanal mining contributes up to 12% or 330 tonnes of annual gold production. This gold input is equally a significant contribution to both the international gold industry and the economy for a given community. A steady rise in the price of gold from US$274.45/oz at the start of 2002 to US$1229.88/oz in May 2010 appears to be reflected as an increasing number of miners undertaking this occupation.

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Wikipedia