Resources

This article offers preliminary reflections on the potential impact of COVID-19 on artisanal and small-scale mining activities in sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, it revisits the core ideas put forward in the literature in support of showcasing the sector more prominently in the region’s rural development strategies.

This brief outlines some of the main challenges to ASM sector support and regulation in the context of the global pandemic and points tentatively to how governments can move forward with effective ASM sector management in the coming months.

In December 2020 the planetGOLD Peru project team provided an update on: the resumption of ASGM activities in the country after restrictions were lifted; the price of gold; the incidence of COVID-19 in the country; and project activities in mining areas.

While the ASGM sector is present across Peru, the department of Madre de Dios is the epicenter of illicit alluvial gold extraction and the accompanying deforestation. This case study examines the complex drivers behind ASGM sector expansion, the devastating impacts on biodiversity in the region, and the strategies implemented to address the impacts of ASGM in Madre de Dios by the Government of Peru.

The toolkit was developed as part of IMPACT’s vision for natural resources to benefit all genders equally, over the course of IMPACT’s work in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda where the organization, along with its partners, identified gaps in tools available to analyze the impact on women in field-based projects addressing ASM formalization. 

The OECD prepared this guidance to provide practical guidance to mining, oil and gas enterprises in addressing the challenges related to stakeholder engagement. 

The OECD developed this guidance to help companies identify, mitigate and account for the risks of child labour in their mineral supply chains. It has been developed to build on the due diligence framework of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance. 

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.