Resources

Women play a critical role in the ASM sector. Women were estimated in 2003 to make up 30% of the ASM workforce globally. Today it may be much higher – estimates from some countries reach 50% on average, and higher in some mineral categories (e.g. salt mining in Uganda). Despite this, women experience a number of gendered barriers to full participation in ASM. 

This note shines light on the use and trade of toxic chemicals in ASGM in Burkina Faso. It argues that interventions to reduce the use of mercury in ASGM operations need to be designed keeping in mind the complexity of the sector, including the actors involved and the fluid arrangements that they strike to win gold. In fact, mercury and gold trade are closely interlinked. Moreover, mercury has become an integral part in the pre-financing arrangements, a dominant form of funding operations in return for gold. These networks of pre-financiers are involved in the smuggling of gold to avoid paying taxes.

The Due Diligence Check guides you through a simple questionnaire tailored to your company characteristics. This means that you only answer questions relevant to you. The advice is customized based on the answers given and divided in the five step framework of the OECD.

In general, reactivation plans in the context of Covid 19 should make State investments flow, along with those from big companies, international cooperation and philanthropy to put resources into the pockets of several economic actors (small companies, cooperatives, associations, ASM organizations, women organizations, community organizations, vulnerable families, among others). This should take place with a strategic approach of design and implementation of local projects, subsidies and microcredits to activate the economies of the countries, especially in marginal urban zones and rural zones where there is ASM activity.

This article discusses implications of domestic cinnabar mining for controlling mercury in Indonesia's ASGM sector, highlighting obstacles to implementing the Minamata Convention, a treaty that aims to restrict mercury use. We link discussion of mercury mining to other socioeconomic processes, labour relations and power dynamics shaping mercury use in gold mining and hindering collectivised mercury-free technology uptake. 

Companies can contribute to positive social and economic development when they involve stakeholders, such as local communities, in their planning and decision making. This is particularly true in the extractive sector, which is associated with extensive social, economic and environmental impacts.

The OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains identifies the worst forms of child labour as a serious human rights abuse associated with the extraction, transport or trade of minerals that companies should not tolerate, profit from, contribute to, assist with or facilitate in the course of doing business. 

An interactive explanation of the OECD's Mineral Supply Chain, five-step framework.

This curriculum was designed to be used globally in training healthcare workers to recognize, diagnose, treat, and prevent mercury toxicity among ASGM miners, their families, and their communities. This publication contains all elements of the curriculum, including recommended agendas, pre- and post-course evaluations, slide sets with narratives on each slide, lesson plans, and tools for classroom activities.

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.