“The New
Faces in
African
Mining”.
THE ARTISANAL MINERS
THE MINING CO-OPERATIVES
WOMEN MINING CO-OPERATIVES
THE JUNIOR MINING COMPANIES
 TYPICALLY NOT FORMALISED/ NOT ORGANISED / NO
BUSINESS STRUCTURE.
 SAVINGS CULTURE NOT VERY COMMON- LIVING
TESTIMONY OF BIBLICAL MATTHEW 6:34
 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient
for the day is its own trouble.”
 ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION.
NOT MUCH ATTENTION PAID TO PERSONAL
SAFETY AND HEALTH ISSUES.
MODEL THRIVES MOSTLY ON BLACK MARKET
TRADING.
LOCALLY, NORMALLY REFERRED TO AS
“AMAKOROKOZA- THE HUSTLERS.”
Good News! Slowly effort is now being made by
GOVERNMENTS and stake holders in the
MINING SECTOR to get this group of miners
recognized, organized and formalized.
• The International Cooperative Alliance defines a
cooperative as “an autonomous association of persons
united voluntarily to meet their common economic,
social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a
jointly-owned
and
democratically
controlled
enterprise.” Cooperative values are “self-help, selfresponsibility, democracy, equality, equity and
solidarity,” as well as “honesty, openness, social
responsibility and caring for others.”
•Harms (2008) explains that as cooperatives are
“participative self-help organizations … members
are also co-owners and have both the rights and
obligations of participating in goal-setting,
decision-making and control or evaluation
processes of their cooperative.” Members must act
as “both users and owners in the development of
cooperative organizations.” Participation is
required at three levels: firstly, in the provision of
resources (inputs such as capital, labour, produce),
in decision-making, and in receiving benefits.
CONSOLIDATES INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS OF
GROUPS SUCH AS THE ARTISANAL MINERS.
 WOMEN MINING CO-OPERATIVES.
NORMALLY ATTRACTS MEMBERS FROM THE
COMMUNITIES SURROUNDING THE PROJECT.
MEMBERS USUALLY CONTRIBUTE CAPITAL IN
EQUAL PARTS AND ARE EQUALLY LIABLE FOR
ANY LIABILITIES ARISING.
USUALLY SEMI-MECHANISED AND NOT VERY
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICALLY IN THEIR
OPERATIONS.
MOST PREVALENT IN GOLD AND BASE METAL
AND GEMSTONE MINING.
MORE FORMALIZED & BETTER ORGANISED.
MORE ADHERENCE TO SAFEFY, HEALTH &
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES.
MORE INTERACTION WITH THE RELEVANT
DEPARTMENTS OF GOVRNMENT:OFFICE OF THE MINING COMMISSIONER,
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,
ENVIRONMENTAL , HEALTH & SAFETY DEPTS.
 SIMILAR TO THE MINING CO-OPERATIVES
DESCRIBED ABOVE SAVE FOR THE BIAS TOWARDS
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT.
 SERVES AS AN EMPOWERMENT TOOL SINCE
WOMEN WERE PREVIOUSLY MAGINALIZED IN
MINING SINCE THE SECTOR WAS REGARDED AS A
MALE DOMAIN.
 ON –GOING MECHANIZATION EFFORTS HAS HELPED
INCREASE WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN MINING COOPERATIVES.
CONTIRBUTES TOWARDS COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT SINCE IT IS SAID “A DOLLAR IN
THE HANDS OF A WOMAN GOES MUCH
FURTHER IN FAMILY AND COMMUNITY
UPLIFTMENT COMPARED TO WHAT THE SAME
WOULD ACHIEVE IN THE HANDS OF A MAN.”
•-disclaimer:- women are not of a homogeneous species hence the
above quality will not ALWAYS prove true!
WOMEN MINING CO-OPERATIVES ARE MOSTLY
VIBRANT IN THE MINING OF:-
 GOLD, INDUSTRIAL MINERALS & GEM STONES.
WOMEN MINING CO-OPERATIVES TAKE
SERIOUSLY TO LEGISLATIVE ISSUES AROUND:-
MINE INSPECTIONS, HEALTH, SAFETY AND THE
ENVIRONMENT.
WOMEN CO-OPERATIVES THRIVE ON :FOCUSED MEMBERSHIP, UNITY OF PURPOSE,
COMMON GOALS AND COMMITMENT TO
HARD WORK.
 The mining groups described above are normally
referred to as Artisanal and Small Scale Mining
(ASM.)
 The table below and the given country examples
attempt to demonstrate the impact the ASMs
have on their country’s economies.
Country
No. ASM Operators
Angola
Burkina Faso
Central African Republic
Chad
Côte d’Ivoire
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Ghana
Guinea
Liberia
Madagascar
Mali
Mozambique
Niger
Nigeria
Sierra Leone
Sudan
Tanzania
Uganda
Zimbabwe
Sources: Estimates based on CASM, ASM statistics for Africa.
150,000
200,000
400,000
100,000
100,000
200,000
400,000
500,000
1,100,000
300,000
100,000
500,000
400,000
100,000
450,000
500,000
300,000
200,000
1,500,000
150,000
500,000
Estimated Dependants
900,000
1,000,000
2,400,000
600,000
600,000
1,200,000
2,400,000
3,000,000
4,400,000
1,500,000
600,000
2,500,000
2,400,000
1,200,000
2,700,000
2,500,000
1,800,000
1,200,000
9,000,000
900,000
3,000,000
using
conservative
multiplier effects, as much as
may be
injected into the economy from informal artisanal
diamond mining revenues and spin-off economic
enterprises.
When indirect labour, induced employment, and
fertility rates
are considered, about twothirds of the women, men, and children in the Central
African Republic may directly or indirectly rely on
artisanal diamond mining.
there are an estimated
artisanal diamond miners in Liberia, of whom about
are women, most of whom pan for gold at
diamond sites. If half of their combined income is spent
on local goods and services, more than
may be injected into local economies, creating markets
for locally grown or supplied products and increasing the
cash component of household incomes.
This ASM-injected capital may further stimulate local
formal and informal enterprises to contribute an
additional
to local economies.
a study was conducted in the
Manica Province, near the Zimbabwean border.
The area has a population of roughly
,and
the study focused on the following community the
where approximately
of the community house holds are involved
in ASM
and about
of their income is thought to come from
mining;
roughly
may be involved in
ASM—approximately
of whom are
women—and
that
direct
and
secondary
employment from ASM may exceed
or
of the country’s
population.
ƒ
almost
and
are engaged in artisanal mining of
gold, tin, coltan, wolfram, and a range of industrial
minerals. The average miner is estimated to contribute
almost
more to
than those employed in
farming,
fishing,
and
forestry.
In
2008,
informal(uncaptured) estimates of gold, tin, coltan, and
wolfram sales suggested that ASM was actually the
Its
contributions are expected to have grown since, with
increased commodity prices and the rising number of
artisanal miners.
 Clearly, ASM has the potential to be an engine for
development. A number of critical factors
determine whether this potential can be realized,
among them the need to formalize ASM; redress the
poor culture of savings and skills to professionalize
operations; increase access to suitable microfinancing
and
appropriate,
intermediate
technologies; and ensure that any efforts to tackle
these issues equitably benefit women and men.
 A junior mining company usually has no mining
operations and is essentially a venture capital
company. It must rely almost entirely on the capital
markets to finance its exploration activities [I say
"almost entirely" because some juniors derive their
financing from private sources, who are usually
prepared to offer risk capital]. These junior miners
then normally graduate to the next category up: midtier producers. These are generally junior companies
that have decided to go into production on properties
that they have discovered.
 It is anticipated that junior exploration
companies will be the major source of future mine
supply. They find promising properties, prove the
resource- the raw material and bring mines into
production. With highly trained geologists,
geophysicists and engineers on staff, it is the
junior mining company that typically is best
positioned to determine whether a property is
economically viable. Juniors are critical players in
the early stages, bridging the long lag time
between when a new deposit is found and when it
is brought into production.
ARTISANAL AND SMALL SCALE MINING (ASM) PLAYS A
CRUCIAL ROLE IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION MOSTLY TO
RURAL COMMUNITIES WHO ARE WITHIN PROXIMITY TO
EASILY
MINEABLE
AREAS,
WITH
COMMODITIES
ATTRACTIVE TO ASM.
ASM ARE A MAJOR EMPLOYMENT CREATOR IN AREAS
WHERE THERE IS COMMUNITY MINING ACTIVITY.
ASMs MAKE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO
THE COUNTRY’S GDP.
COMMUNITIES ARE EMPOWERED AROUND ASM
PROJECTS.
HOWEVER ASMs CAN BE A THREAT TO FOOD SECURITY
(AT FAMILY AND COMMUNITY LEVEL )AS AGRICUTURAL
ACTIVITY IS OFTEN ABANDONED IN FAVOUR OF MINING
WHICH HAS FASTER RETURNS.
MERCURY POLLUTION FROM GOLD PROCESSING STILL
REMAINS A MAJOR THREAT TO THE ENVIRONMENT
THROUGH ITS ENTRY INTO THE WATER SOURCES AND
THE ATMOSPHERE.
LAND DEGRADATION REMAINS WORRYSOME AS UGLY
SCARS ARE LEFT ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH WITH WATER
WAYS FACING IMMINENT SILTATION.
GOVERNMENT THEREFORE NEED TO TAKE URGENT STEPS
TO FORMALIZE THE ASM IN ORDER TO OPEN DEFINED
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS SO AS TO CURB SOME OF THE
SHORT-COMINGS OF THE ASM.
ON THE OTHER HAND THE JUNIOR MINING COMPANIES
WILL PLAY THE BRIDGING ROLE BETWEEN ASM AND THE BIG
MINING COMPANIES.
AS WORLD ECONOMICS NOW AND GOING AHEAD
DEMAND MORE AGILE AND SWIFT TRANSACTIONS,
THE ARTISANAL AND SMALL-SCALE MINING IN
SYMBIOSIS WITH THE JUNIOR MINING COMPANIES,
REFLECT THE
NOW AND
GOING INTO THE FUTURE.