Formalising artisanal and small‐scale mining: insights, contestations and clarifications

Abstract

In recent years, a number of academic analyses have emerged which draw attention to how most artisanal and small‐scale mining (ASM) activities – low‐tech, labour‐intensive, mineral extraction and processing – occur in informal ‘spaces’. This body of scholarship, however, is heavily disconnected from work being carried out by policy‐makers and donors who, recognising the growing economic importance of ASM in numerous rural sections of the developing world, are now working to identify ways in which to facilitate the formalisation of its activities. It has rather drawn mostly on theories of informality that have been developed around radically different, and in many cases, incomparable, experiences, as well as largely redundant ideas, to contextualise phenomena in the sector. This paper reflects critically on the implications of this widening gulf, with the aim of facilitating a better alignment of scholarly debates on ASM's informality with overarching policy/donor objectives. The divide must be bridged if the case for formalising ASM is to be strengthened, and policy is to be reformulated to reflect more accurately the many dimensions of the sector's operations.

The Importance of Mineralogical Knowledge in the Sustainability of Artisanal Gold Mining: A Mid-South Peru Case

“…Gold mining is one of the most important economic activities in Peru, to the point that thanks to this activity Peru is no longer considered a developing country but an upper-middle income country [5][6][7]. Artisanal mining represents about 20% of the total gold produced in Peru [8] and involves about 30,000 direct workers and 180,000 dependents [9]. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) [10], these figures rise to 70,000 direct workers and 300,000 dependents.…”

The Moral Politics of Gendered Labour in Artisanal Mining in Sierra Leone

“…Maconachie and Hilson (2011: 602) estimated there were 200,000 men, women and children employed in the artisanal gold mining sector in the country, but likely there were more than that by 2019 given the worsening economic situation. The 2009 Sierra Leonean Mines and Mineral Act confirms Hilson and Maconachie's (2017) claim that African governments promoting formalization of ASM are only interested in securing its control over subsurface rights. Its sole focus on what it defines as ‘artisanal mining’ (distinguished in terms of technology, size and depth of claim, and number of people involved) is on establishing a licensing regime ‘which formalizes an approach where the artisanal mining license holder is someone able to negotiate bureaucratic and financial requirements of the license and operate as if they were like a mining company’ (Ibrahim et al., forthcoming).…”

Towards Sustainable Pro-Poor Development? A Critical Assessment of Fair Trade Gold

“…It is beyond the scope of this paper to delve into the details about why this is the case but in most instances, it is -to elaborate on points raised in the previous section of this paper -due to a combination of bureaucratic registration processes and costly licensing fees, which confine most of the region's ASM operators to the informal economy. Examples include Ghana, where miners must pay thousands of US dollars in license and environmental permit fees (Hilson et al, 2016;Hilson and Maconachie, 2017); Liberia, where, in order to use machinery, individuals must obtain a Class B License, which requires payment of a US$5000 fee, renewable annually (Hinton et al, 2010;Van Bockstael, 2014); and Zimbabwe, where achieving compliance with technical specifications and bureaucratic processes associated with registration and licensing can take many years (Spiegel, 2012(Spiegel, , 2015. There is the added difficulty of securing viable plots in a rent-seeking 'space' controlled by host governments: in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and other areas of the developing world for that matter, vast sections of land have been demarcated to multinational mining and mineral exploration companies in exchange for royalties, taxes and other miscellaneous payments.…”