Building Capacity for 300 Miners in Ecuador

With the aim of eliminating the use of chemicals such as mercury and protecting health and nature, the Ministry of Environment and Water together with the United Nations Development Program through the National Program for the Environmentally Sound Management of Chemicals in their Life Cycle (a planetGOLD partner project) coordinated a visit to the mining concession “Agroindustrial El Corazon” for technicians specialized in artisanal and small-scale mining from the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources (MERNNR), Ministry of Environment and Water (MAAE), IIGE and the Central Bank of Ecuador that are taking a training workshop.

The course has a duration of 81 hours, in which technical knowledge will be refreshed, but above all, methodologies and strategies will be developed to train more than 300 artisanal miners located in Camilo Ponce Enriquez, Zaruma-Portovelo and Chinapintza in 2021.

The topics to be discussed will focus on the promotion of better extraction, processing and marketing practices. This will provide the artisanal and small-scale mining sector with tools that reduce the risk of contamination and promote the sale of ore, the first link in this productive sector, at a fair price.