News & Voices

The theme of this year's International Women's Day is #ChooseToChallenge — a call to recognize and call out gender bias and inequality. In solidarity with people all over the world taking up this call, planetGOLD project staff, miners, and partner government officials raised their hands to share why they choose to challenge gender inequalities in artisanal and small-scale gold mining.

In the Ananea district in Peru's snow-capped mountains, artisanal & small-scale gold mining is the largest source of local work. Get a glimpse of the mercury-free equipment the planetGOLD Peru team & their partner the GIRH-TDPS project tested there to show a path to more responsible ASGM sector.

La educación ambiental es clave para empoderar a las personas y tomar acción por nuestro planeta. Con ese fin, el proyecto planetGOLD Perú, que busca reducir, eliminar y/o evitar el uso del mercurio en la MAPE, viene trabajando una campaña de concientización llamada “Expedición Mercurio”.

We often say that responsible artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a tool for sustainable development. What do we mean by that? This article examines key opportunities for responsible ASGM to contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and to the 2030 Agenda.

El taller internacional "Experiencias exitosas sobre MAPE responsable" se realizará entre el 11 y 15 de enero del 2021. En cuyo marco se intercambiarán experiencias exitosas, lecciones aprendidas e iniciativas que promueven la práctica de una MAPE responsable.

Bayanihan Amidst Super Typhoons and a Pandemic: A whole-of-society approach is needed in the Philippines to ensure that the ASGM sector fully recovers from three typhoons and delivers social and economic benefits not just for the miners, but for the country as a whole.

The Code of Risk-mitigation for ASM engaging in Formal Trade (CRAFT) is newly revised with improvements incorporated and a renewed structure to make it easier to read the standard. Natalia Uribe from the Alliance for Responsible Mining gives an overview of the key changes that have been made, and writes that the set of criteria planetGOLD is creating aligning with the standard follows CRAFT's intention to facilitate the application of the OECD Due Diligence Guide in the ASM sector.

Earlier this year projects within planetGOLD shared information on how the pandemic affected ASGM in their respective countries. In a new blog this week, we summarize recent updates from the planetGOLD country project managers on the current state of the ASGM sector at this stage of the pandemic in terms of mining operation status, gold prices, travel restrictions, and constraints on planetGOLD project activities.

Despite facing tremendous challenges in Guyana’s male-dominated world of artisanal & small-scale gold mining, women miners are determined to defy the odds and succeed in a sector that is a key source of livelihoods for thousands in the country. The planetGOLD Guyana project is working to ensure that men and women have equal access to all opportunities available under the project, including access to technologies that are safer for their health and the environment.

The planetGOLD partner project in Ecuador along with the Ministry of Environment and Water, UNDP, the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources, IIGE, and the Central Bank of Ecuador are embarking on a new training workshop to help refresh technical knowledge and focus on developing methodologies and strategies to train more than 300 artisanal miners located in Camilo Ponce Enriquez, Zaruma-Portovelo and Chinapintza in 2021.

ASGM is a main source of income for rural communities in the Philippines and has been a catalyst for social and economic progress where it operates, such as the small town of Buenavista, Quezon, home to around 30,000 people. This article from the planetGOLD Philippines team examines how responsible ASGM can contribute to many social benefits.

Promoción de acciones para la mitigación de impactos y eliminación del uso del mercurio es el nombre del nuevo curso de formación complementaria que hace parte de la oferta educativa del SENA y que se presenta en modalidad virtual con objetivo de instalar capacidad territorial para proteger la salud humana y el medio ambiente de este metal tóxico.