Resolving artisanal and small-scale mining challenges: moving from conflict to cooperation for sustainability in mine planning

摘要

Despite the considerable challenges posed by artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), itremains part of our lives. Conflict between ASM miners as well with large-scale miningcompanies, civil strife, social unrest, and corruption to mention a few problems are the orderof the day in ASM. Environmental damage and possible contribution to economic meltdownare a cause for concern. The main thrust of this paper is to discuss the challenges posed byASM across the whole spectrum of political, social, economic, and environmental and healthand safety issues. The paper also proposes some proactive and realistic approaches to resolvethe challenges discussed in order to move from conflict to sustainability in mine planning.ASM is characterized by relatively uneducated and unregistered miners, and policiestargeting ASM miners should be disseminated in a comprehensible manner lest such policiesremain in our dreams and the policy books. Since it is the government that funds clean-up ofthe mess from ASM, one of the best ways to avoid this expenditure is developing cooperativeapproaches through different governmental instruments, persuading the ASM miners to mineresponsibly. The contribution of ASM to unemployment reduction cannot be ignored, butbeing mainly an informal sector, it is very difficult to quantify its contribution to economicdevelopment. Capturing meaningful rent from these miners may also remain a dream if nonconsultativepolicies are imposed on this sector. Tracing the miners can be a nightmare whenreactive approaches are implemented. Large-scale mining companies, government, and civilsociety at large have to adopt a cooperative approach to devise sustainable, workable, andrealistic ways to convert ASM miners into contributors to sustainable development.