Resources

This study included a consultative process with a broad array of stakeholder groups yielding consensus on the principal obstacles to ASGM formalization. To enable ASGM operators to formalize, a recommendation emerged for a National Unified Formalization Plan, which rests on six proposals that largely align with current policy and legislation.

Oro Legal remains USAID’s largest and most ambitious bilateral initiative in support of ASGM and was implemented in two of Colombia’s emblematic mining departments — Antioquia and Chocó — between September 2015 and April 2021.

El presente estudio pretende aportar a la comprensión sobre las desigualdades de género en la minería artesanal y de pequeña escala a través de los pensamientos, visiones y percepciones de mineros y mineras sobre estas; así como analizar desde un enfoque de género las normativas y políticas públicas aplicables al sector minero.

Esta cartilla fue concebida como instrumento práctico y didáctico para que las empresas comercializadoras y demás actores de la cadena de suministro de minerales conozcan la ruta mediante la cual se identifiquen y mitiguen los riesgos, a la vez que se promueva la llegada de este mineral a los mercados internacionales de una manera legítima.

Conducting geospatial analysis of the Amazon biogeographic region, this report estimates, for the first time, the full extent of legal, large-scale mining concessions and illegal mining operations on Indigenous territories within the rainforest. The study focuses on Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana and Peru.

The looming third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have devastating impacts in many countries in the Global South, with far worse health outcomes and economic implications. While formal and informal income sources in LMICs are collapsing, the ASGM sector offers a rare and desperately needed income opportunity due to the stable or rising international gold price. At the same time, artisanal mining communities can be considered as most-affected and at-risk group according to the UN Global Humanitarian Response Plan COVID-19. 

Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining provides livelihoods for about 40 million people worldwide, representing 90% of the gold mining sector workforce and generating around 20% of their annual production. 

In the context of the global crisis generated by COVID-19, this population is exposed to a number of particular vulnerabilities that need to be urgently assessed at the global, national and local levels to take action to mitigate their impact.

These guidelines are designed for project managers, project implementers, practitioners, or others working on development or environmental management projects that could impact ASM projects or communities that engage in ASM.  This document addresses: (1) impact of development projects on ASM; (2) impacts of ASM on the environment, health, and socio-political systems; (3) best practices on mitigation measures for minimizing impacts of ASM; (4) impact of climate change on ASM; and (5) impact of ASM on climate change. 

This report reviews existing knowledge and experience around mining in forested landscapes. It focuses on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). It analyzed several active ASM mine sites as case studies to identify good and bad practices for forest-smart mining and the conditions and mechanisms that motivate these practices.