HISTORICAL AND MODERN GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO ARTISINAL AND SMALL SCALE GOLD MINING
| Jurisdiction | Derecho Internacional |
(Apr 2013)
HISTORICAL AND MODERN GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO ARTISINAL AND SMALL SCALE GOLD MINING
Anthony Persaud
Executive Director, Artisanal Gold Council
Victoria, BC
KEVIN TELMER is Executive Director of the Artisanal Gold Council (since 2007), an organization that creates formal businesses and sustainable development in artisanal and small scale gold mining communities. He works with stakeholders and organizations involved in the gold industry, from supply to finance to jewelry sectors, and collaborates with other partners on projects designed to improve gold mining; he brings field experience and science and technology solutions into socio-economic issues and debates, and is one of the few people to work both in the field with miners and at the international level with policy makers. Dr. Telmer created the Mercury Watch Web Portal (2008-present) and served as a consultant on the UNIDO Global Mercury Project (2006-2008). He is a Professor of Geochemistry at the University of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences (1999-present). Dr. Telmer has worked on improvement projects in Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining in more than 20 countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Mongolia, Ecuador, Peru, Philippines, Indonesia, Tanzania, Ghana, Brazil; these have been funded by a variety of organisations, such as: United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO); Global Environment Facility (GEF); Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), USAID; and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). He received his Ph.D. in Geochemistry from the University of Ottawa and conducted a Postdoctoral Fellowship, Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Metals in the Environment programme, and is a NSERC Graduate Scholar. Dr. Telmer chairs the International Commission on Geosciences for Environmental Management, a body within the International Union of Geosciences (IUGS). He is fluent in speaking and writing English and Portuguese, with near fluency in Spanish and French.
Abstract
Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) is an industry that has existed for millennia. Here we focus on the two modern phases: (1) the 19th century gold rushes - roughly 1849 to 1929 (80 years), and (2) the modern ongoing gold rush - roughly 1970 to present (40 years and continuing). The earlier phase primarily took place in English or former English colonies (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa) and played a key role in the economic development and the evolution of governance systems in these countries. The modern gold rush is occurring more broadly geographically - in at least 70 countries - and in developing countries with a more diverse political history but that have in common high rates of rural poverty. A key driver and similarity behind ASGM for both the historical and modern context is the opportunity for relatively high incomes and conditions that allow laymen to directly participate in acquiring a share of the wealth -contrary to many rural agricultural opportunities. A key difference is how governments have responded. Government response to the earlier phase was characterized by support, provision of services, encouragement, and the development of laws and law enforcement mechanisms to protect and grow the sector towards behaviour congruent with those emerging societies, as well as re-investment in the mining sector to support modernization and diversification. These countries are currently leaders in the formal modern mining sector (referred to as the Large Scale Mining industry or LSM). The response to the modern phase has been dominantly characterized by marginalization, criminalization, and the application of laws primarily borrowed from the modern industrialized mining sector-laws that evolved out of the earlier gold rushes but are now significantly more sophisticated and out of reach to easily support the development of the modern ASGM sector. This may now be changing with the recognition that the modern ASGM sector will be a permanent feature of the modern mining industry for the foreseeable future and perhaps more importantly, that ASGM is a tremendous domestic development opportunity, just as it was 100 years ago.
[Page 18C-3]
Artisanal Gold Council (AGC), Victoria BC, Canada, V8N 1K7
www.artisanalgold.org
May 2013 - PRELIMINARY DRAFT
Abstract
Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) is an industry that has existed for millennia. But the most important (simply by production volume) are the two phases: (1) the 19th century gold rushes - roughly 1849 to 1929 (80 years), and (2) the modern ongoing gold rush - roughly 1970 to present with a big kick in 1980, (40 years and continuing). The earlier phase primarily took place in English or former English colonies described as "liberal democracies"1 (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa) and played a key role in the economic development and the evolution of governance systems in these countries. The modern gold rush is occurring more broadly geographically - in at least 70 countries - and in developing countries with a more diverse political history than those that were involved in the 19th century rush, but that have in common high rates of rural poverty.
[Page 18C-4]
A key similarity and driver behind ASGM for both the historical and modern context is the opportunity for relatively high incomes and conditions that allow laymen to directly participate in acquiring a share of the wealth - contrary to many rural agricultural opportunities. A key difference is how governments have responded. Government response to the earlier phase was characterized by support, provision of services, encouragement, and the development of laws and law enforcement mechanisms to protect and grow the sector towards "good behavior" congruent with the development of those emerging societies Re-investment in the mining sector to support modernization and diversification was also a hallmark of the 19th century gold rushes. To a significant degree, the past behavior of those countries with respect to their historical informal mining sectors has led them to currently being the leaders in the formal modern mining sector (referred to as the Large Scale Mining industry or LSM). The response to the modern phase of ASGM has been dominantly characterized by marginalization, criminalization, and the attempted application of laws dominantly borrowed from the modern industrialized mining sector - laws that evolved out of the earlier gold rushes but do not now easily support the development of the modern ASGM sector. The recognition that the modern ASGM sector will be a permanent feature of the modern mining industry for the foreseeable future. As well as the, perhaps more important position of ASGM in economic development. It is recognized as a tremendous domestic development opportunity. However today's government response is still largely falling behind on actively developing the ASGM sector in a clear and robust manner. An indicator of this is the paucity of LSM-ASM collaborations. The lack of collaboration is not a technical one but often driven by complex legalities that leave the parties in a state of paralysis with respect to the rate of change possible to address key barriers. At this point in time we are 40 years into the modern gold rush. If it lasts 80 years like the 19th century rush, that leaves 40 years to have at least as good an outcome. If that is to happen, legal reform will play a big role in providing the access to capital and technological upgrades that can create a small scale gold sector that can comply with modern mining and environmental codes and due diligence initiatives.
Introduction
[Page 18C-5]
Gold production over the last 6000 years has been between 157,000 and 180,000 tonnes with about 80% of that remaining in existence and the balance lost in the sea.2 3 But 90% of all gold is estimated to have been produced since the California Gold rush in 1949 - the last 160 years. This was accomplished in 4 sub-cycles with 2001 theorized to be the year of peak gold production at 2,600 tonnes, according to a Hubert Style production cycle.4 Analyses of the shape of the 4th and current sub-cycle predict 1,600 tonnes production in 2018 or 780 tonnes in 2026 for this 4th sub-cycle. Future smaller sub-cycles could occur but the total possible cumulative production is predicted to be between 230,000 and 280,000 tonnes, unless another supergiant goldfield like the Witwatersrand of South...
To continue reading
Request your trial