Resources

The 2024 Global Forum on Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining was held in Batangas, Philippines, in June 2024. Organized by the planetGOLD Programme, this event aimed to gather a diverse range of stakeholders, including miners, government officials, international agencies, policy and technical experts, and private sector representatives. The primary goals were to inform, educate, and exchange best practices to enhance, professionalize and eliminate mercury in the ASGM sector.

The paper reports on several areas of ASM intervention applied across World Bank programs over the last five decades to understand what has and has not worked well. 

"The paper's principal audiences are World Bank Country Management Units and government clients, however given the paper’s important findings on support to the sector, secondary audiences include bilateral partners (donors) and the network of stakeholders involved in ASM who are critical for helping to build a new culture of scaled partnership to the sector."

The overarching goal of this handbook is to establish a common knowledge base on the impacts of mercury use in the ASM sector on human health and the environment among all the stakeholders involved in or connected with artisanal gold mining.

This report documenting planetGOLD’s progress from July 2021 through June 2022 shows how project teams in planetGOLD made key advances toward helping miners go mercury-free, by improving miners’ awareness of the dangers of mercury use, educating and demonstrating to them viable technical alternatives, and progressing in creating an enabling regulatory and financial environment that supports miners to undertake this transition. 

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) plays a vital role in Uganda's economic development, providing significant income and employment opportunities for miners and their communities. Since the planetGOLD project began in Uganda two years ago, the progress within the ASGM sector has been remarkable. This publication highlights the impact of the planetGOLD project, featuring stories directly from artisanal miners and our partners. 

Recognizing that lasting change requires addressing root economic and social drivers of mercury use, planetGOLD is working to accelerate formalization, increase access to formal finance and open avenues to formal gold markets, creating the enabling conditions for the uptake of more efficient, mercury-free technology. This report provides an overview of the progress made since the launch of the planetGOLD programme in early 2019 and includes data from the initiation of each of the national projects through fall 2020.

The Quick Start Guide summarizes and provides a visual overview of the key issues and recommendations for incorporating gender dimension into National Action Plans for artisanal and small scale gold mining. The document is based on the detailed guidance presented in UNEP's Guide on Incorporating Gender Dimensions into National Strategy Setting in the Context of Chemicals Management.

Despite considerable ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the planetGOLD programme has nonetheless managed to advance toward its goals of helping small-scale gold miners avoid the use of mercury, as well as contributing to the creation of more sustainable livelihoods and creating a healthier and more profitable sector overall. This report provides an overview of the progress made by the planetGOLD programme from July 2020 through June 2021.

The purpose of the Guidelines is to assist the United Nations system to mainstream and integrate indigenous peoples’ issues in processes for operational activities and programmes at the country level.