Global Gold Production Touching Ground (original) (raw)
Related papers
Making sense of global gold mining
2020
In our own research, we set out to develop an explanatory framework for understanding diversity in global gold mining. This required a move away from the dualist and localist focus that characterized earlier research. The results of this exercise were recently published in the form of an edited volume, which couples an analysis of systemic trends in global gold mining to thirteen country case studies in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. In this contribution, we want to briefly elaborate on the analytical and conceptual challenges that we encountered.
Transforming matters: sustaining gold lifeways in artisanal and small-scale mining
Transforming matters: sustaining gold lifeways in artisanal and small-scale mining, 2021
Growth strategies in mining regions promote gold extraction based on industrial mining, associating Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) with persistent informality. Against this background, we consider how to approach transformations to sustainability in ASGM. Acknowledging how problematic this topic is for sustainability debates, given how ASGM is associated with a host of environmental and social problems, we argue that a justice lens demands we confront such challenges within the global politics of sustainability. This leads us to review advances in the study of ASGM, linked to debates on extractivism, resource materialities, and informality. We use the notion of gold lifeways to capture how the matter of mining shapes different worlds of extraction. We argue that consideration of the potential for transformations to sustainability needs to be grounded within the realities of ASGM. This necessitates giving value to miners' knowledge(s), perspectives and interests, while recognising the plurality of mining futures. Nevertheless, we conclude that between the immediacy of precarious work and the structural barriers to change in ASGM, the challenges for transformation cannot be underestimated. Authors: Eleanor Fisher, SabineLuning, Lorenzo D’Angelo, Carlos HX Araujo, Luigi Arnaldi de Balme, Jorge Calvimontes, Esther van de Camp, Lúcia da Costa Ferreira, Cristiano Lanzano, Luciana Massaro, Alizèta Ouédraogo, Januária Pereira Mello, Robert J. Pijpers, Nii Obodai Provençal, Raíssa Resende de Moraes, Christophe Sawadogo, Marjo de Theije, Giorgio de Tomi, Ronald Twongyirwe
WEST AFRICA'S GOLDEN FUTURE? CONFLICTS AROUND GOLD MINING IN SENEGAL
2016
In West Africa, large social movements against mining are so far relatively absent from the protest scene. In contrast, a major point in conflict is the competition for gold between artisanal and small-scale miners and large-scale mining companies (e.g. Engels forthcoming, Okoh 2014), in particular in countries with a long tra-dition of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and a newly-emerging industrial mining economy. Artisanal and small-scale mining refers to the “labor-intensive, low-tech mineral exploration and processing” of gold (Hilson 2011, pp. 1032). In this paper, I aim to identify how the livelihood activities of artisanal and small-scale mining shape conflict over large-scale mining.
Futures, 2013
The development of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) 1 in Africa during recent decades has been characterized by two important features. The first one is the almost explosive expansion in scope and number of people involved in the activity. The other one is the significant part of the activity that is carried out informally, i.e. not as legally registered operations based on ordinary mining licenses. Registered ASM operations have spread due to increasing official recognition of other types of mining operations than large-scale operations -mostly managed by foreign owned companies -as indicated by the widespread incorporation of the ASM sector in national mining laws. However, an unknown but substantial share of total ASM production is taking place in the 'twilight zone' where actual production is illegal in the sense that mining is taking place on land not licensed to the operators but trading channels are entangled so it is hard to distinguish the two sectors in the downstream segments of the ASM chain. This is particularly pronounced in ASM for gold but also evident in other precious minerals, gemstones and industrial minerals (e.g. salt, aggregates, and lime). Futures xxx (2013) xxx-xxx A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Available online xxx Keywords: Artisanal and small-scale mining Interlocked markets Formalization Value chains Gold Tanzania Ghana A B S T R A C T
PhD Thesis, 2020
This thesis reiterates that mining communities in Zimbabwe experience ‘poverty in the midst of plenty’. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has been widely regarded as a pivotal off-farm strategy of enhancing rural households’ livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. However, this was not the case with Umzingwane District of southern Matabeleland where institutional exclusion – access and rights to gold –emerged as a major problem faced by artisanal gold miners. This thesis set out to explain how artisanal gold miners (otsheketsha/amagweja) utilised their social networks, connections and groups to access gold in order to enhance rural livelihoods in southern Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. The thesis adopted a qualitative explanatory case study which focused on Umzingwane District of southern Matabeleland. Owing to the secretive nature of actors in the ASM sector, findings indicate that trust, stronger connections, loyalty and reciprocal relations emerged as the important social resource for practicing artisanal gold mining. The findings also suggest that resources-based networks (amakhiwa/amabhoziweli), networks of political influence (ezinkulu), tribal and ethnic networks, were utilised by artisanal miners as a window to access key resources, as well as security and protection to advance their mining activities. Furthermore, the findings suggest that a multiplicity of resources which are mobilised easily through the collective efforts and utilisation of social capital put the community based mining groups at a strategic position to deal with challenges such as elite capture of mineral resources, corruption and exploitation of artisanal gold miners as well as improve livelihoods and reduce poverty of local artisanal miners in Umzingwane District of southern Matabeleland. The study concludes that effectiveness of social contacts was seen through their ability to establish free flow of information that was harnessed by the artisanal gold miners for their new mining ventures. The thesis also concludes that resources-based networks, networks of political influence, tribal and ethnic networks, were a conduit that enabled miners to access and mobilise scarce resources for their mining activities. The thesis argues that social capital shapes how communities negotiate access and rights to the extraction of gold in order to improve rural household livelihoods in rural communities. The cohesive nature of artisanal gold mining communities and their ability to effectively harness social capital in their entrepreneurial mining ventures magnify and emphasize the relevance of community based mining groups in the Umzingwane ASM sector. This underlines a distinct theoretical perspective premised on the community based mining groups, as an elevated iii construct on community participation in artisanal gold mining to transcend the exploitation and the dominant status quo of the artisanal miners. The thesis suggests the need to strengthen policy formulation to address the challenges of exploitation of artisanal miners and in so doing also address the challenges of social injustice, inequality, unemployment and rural poverty.
Learnings from West Africa’s regional experiences in the gold sector
2023
While artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is an important source of livelihoods in West Africa, informality leaves it vulnerable to exploitation by criminal and conflict actors. To best address the challenge, supporting the formalisation of the ASGM sector will be critical. This report, informed by a regional workshop, explores root causes of challenges and options for responses.
The Geopolitics of Gold - Narratives of Globalisation and Remote Resource Economies
Between 1994 and 2003, 400 mergers and acquisitions took place globally in the gold mining industry. During this time, the gold price fell to its lowest level since the closing of the Gold Standard in 1972. In response, exploration budgets were slashed; R&D projects shelved; production halved; and supply from green-fields discoveries dwindled. Many in the industry questioned the future of gold under globalising conditions and began diversifying into other minerals. Some in the industry suggested there would no longer be a role for small to medium gold producers in the future. The research in this book examines what has happened since that prediction in the late 1990s. It also examines the extent to which globalisation as an idea is understood in business circles and how this has filtered through to the global gold mining industry. By Utilising case studies which consider new emerging regions as potential gold sources, and stories gathered from gold producers within the industry, thi...
The Extractive Industries and Society
Two scales of gold mining operations, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and large-scale mining, have operated side by side in Ghana for decades. In the past, the two co-existed on the same mineralised land without much contact or conflict, as large-scale mining occurred underground and ASM operated mainly on the surface. With the former's transition from an underground labour-intensive mining operation to capital-intensive surface activity, however, opportunities for wage employment have reduced leading to labour retrenchment. Using an informalisation theoretical framework, and drawing on fieldwork conducted in the three gold mining towns of Obuasi, Prestea and Kenyasi, this paper explores how the interface between large-scale mining and ASM has evolved. It is shown how the loss of wage employment opportunities in large-scale mining has contributed to the proliferation of illegal ASM operations. As large-scale surface mining operations have reduced access to mineralised land by ASM, the latter have encroached on to the concessions of the former resulting in conflicts between these parties. It is ASM rather than large-scale mining, however, that is sustaining local economies in Ghana. As the economic well-being of mining towns is linked largely to the fortune of their mining economies, it is imperative that an innovative approach is adopted by the state in addressing the need for ASMs to access mineralised land.
Digging Deep for Justice: A Radical Re-imagination of the Artisanal Gold Mining Sector in Ghana
Antipode, 2009
This article explores the concept of "contact zones" to counteract misrecognition and exclusion in the artisanal gold mining sector of Ghana. The large majority of the 300,000-500,000 Ghanaian artisanal miners work without an official license, illegally. Due to their encroachment on corporate concession lands, the use of toxic mercury in the gold extraction process, and the social disruption caused by their migratory activities, these miners are often marginalized and criminalized. Yet, devaluation and misrecognition hamper environmental stewardship and participation in political decision-making. Through parityfostering participatory research, I propose a radical re-imagination of the sector that encourages agency and flourishing among these ostracized men and women diggers.