Artisanal mining and livelihoods in the Global South

In recent years, rural livelihoods in resource-rich countries of the Global South have been rapidly transformed by the growth of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector - low-tech, labour-intensive, mineral extraction and processing, typically focusing on precious metals and stones. Research has shown that despite being associated with a host of environmental, health and safety, and social concerns, the ASM sector provides a direct livelihood for an estimated 40 million people globally, with as many as 150 million people benefiting indirectly from the upstream and downstream activities it spawns. This work also suggests that the ASM sector has played an important role in meeting the needs of marginalised grassroots actors, including unemployed youth, women and children. However, these benefits often come at a cost. Most ASM takes place in the informal sphere, with mining activities occurring in remote areas where governance is poor, regulatory enforcement is virtually non-existent and elite capture is widespread. As the demand for key industrial minerals - such as the '3 T’s’ (tin, tungsten and tantalum) and cobalt - has soared in recent years, artisanal mineral supply chains that feed production in the major electronic companies have also come under increasing scrutiny. Research exploring the ‘darker side’ of ASM has examined its link to human rights abuses, shadow state economies, money laundering and criminal and terrorist networks. This chapter provides an introduction and critical overview of ASM and livelihoods in developing countries of the Global South. Drawing upon case study examples predominantly from sub-Saharan Africa, a range of different minerals that are extracted artisanally are explored. In reviewing both the challenges and benefits that artisanal operators face, the merits of a formalised ASM sector are discussed as a possible way of safeguarding livelihoods and ensuring that more benefits accrue to host communities where extraction takes place.</p

Spaces for contestation:the politics of community development agreements in Sierra Leone

Across mineral-rich sub-Saharan Africa, it has become increasingly common for mining companies to support development schemes in host communities where resource extraction takes place. The negotiation of so-called ‘community development agreements’ (CDAs), provides an opportunity to address the social and environmental impacts of mining, while at the same time serving as a platform through which company-community relations can be mediated. Unlike discretionary corporate social responsibility programmes, in many countries, CDAs are embedded in law, invoking parties’ mutual commitments and responsibilities. Such initiatives have been heralded as ‘game–changers’, promising equitable redistribution of wealth, structured community development and stable investment climates for extractives companies. However, factors that concern the process of their negotiation, coupled with structural weaknesses, can affect their implementation, transforming them into spaces of contestation which can threaten their potential. Drawing upon fieldwork carried out in Sierra Leone between 2013-2018, this paper critically explores the contested nature of CDAs. Focusing on two different case studies in the south and east of the country, it argues that such agreements will only contribute to genuine development in host communities if the longstanding issues that have stalled the pre-existing forms and instruments of community development are systematically addressed

Artisanal and Small-scale Mining and the Sustainable Development Goals::Opportunities and New Directions for Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper explains how formalizing and supporting artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech, labor-intensive mineral processing and extraction – would help governments in sub-Saharan Africa meet several targets linked the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While most of the men and women found working in ASM in the region choose to operate without the requisite permits and are rarely monitored or regulated, the local impacts of their activities are significant. After examining the long historical trajectory that has relegated most ASM activities in sub-Saharan Africa to the informal economy, three of the sector’s more obvious economic impacts are reviewed: its contribution to regional mineral outputs; how operations create employment opportunities for millions of people directly, and millions more in the downstream and upstream industries they spawn; and the links the sector has with subsistence agriculture, dynamics which have important implications for food security and gender equality. These contributions alone are sufficient justification for featuring ASM more prominently in the plans, policies and programs being launched in sub-Saharan Africa to help host governments meet their commitments to the SDGs

Artisanal mining, mechanization and human (in) security in Sierra Leone

In recent years, as alluvial mineral deposits in many regions of West Africa have become ‘worked out’, new methods of extraction have become increasingly prevalent. In the case of Sierra Leone, traditional artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) employing rudimentary hand tools has gradually become more mechanized, with the illicit use of heavy machines outpacing the development of laws and policies aimed at regulating them. Drawing on field-based research undertaken in diamondiferous Kono District in Sierra Leone's Eastern Province, this paper explores the political economy underpinning the mechanization of ASM, as well as its implications for human security. Popular discourse has frequently employed technical narratives to explain the drivers of mechanization, including dwindling alluvial diamond deposits, unreliable geological data and the weak law enforcement capacity of regulatory agencies. This paper, however, contends that the mechanization of ASM is also an elite adaptation strategy through which modes of production are effectively controlled. This process is deeply political and divisive, resulting in the (re)production of winners and losers. As inequality between elite actors and dispossessed diggers has deepened, the resulting human security challenges of mechanization are immense—including undervalued and dislocated labor, rapid environmental degradation, and the widespread destruction of livelihoods. A shift in mining policy and law that is likely to address the human security impacts currently unravelling in ASM communities, should be preceded by a grounded, cost-benefit analysis, in order to determine the potential winners and losers, and to inform more sustainable design and implementation.</p

Artisanal mining and the rationalisation of informality:critical reflections from Liberia

Across sub-Saharan Africa, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) represents a major source of direct and indirect employment. Yet, despite the livelihood benefits and the growing interest from governments, donors and policy makers to formalise ASM, most artisanal miners still operate informally. Focusing on Liberia, this article critically investigates the question of why formalisation efforts continue to fail and argues that the persistence of informality in the sector needs to first be understood as a rational strategy for those who profit from it. Only then can sustainable mining reforms be linked to broader national and international extractive sector policy frameworks.</p

Navigating the intergenerational divide?:Youth, artisanal diamond mining, and social transformation in Sierra Leone

Alleviating mass rural poverty is Sierra Leone’s greatest development challenge. It is a deeply political issue in so much as the country has abundant natural resources, yet is characterized by networks of elite actors who capture and control much of the wealth they generate. Access to these resources has long been bridged by informal networks, with strong patron-client relationships defining rural life in resource-rich stretches of the country. Recent scholarly analysis of these relationships has placed much emphasis on inter-generational interactions and power relations, both as a factor that mediates opportunities for young people, and their ability to access resources and lift themselves out of poverty. Here, it has been suggested that mobility and immobility are key factors in shaping young people’s livelihood experiences and their ability to negotiate intergenerational tension. The artisanal and small-scale mining sector – informal, labour-intensive, low-tech mineral extraction and processing – provides a fertile vehicle for exploring both the expansion and contraction of patronage networks over time, and how young people navigate the intergenerational relationships that shape their livelihoods. Drawing upon both historical analysis, and mixed method multi-sited fieldwork undertaken over an extended period between 2003-2016, the paper focuses on Kono District, where artisanal mining has long been attracting young, single, unemployed migrants seeking a way out of agrarian poverty. In doing so, the analysis provides a longitudinal picture of the dynamic relationship between youth and artisanal mining, and its place within Sierra Leone’s complex political economy. The paper concludes by reflecting on the current state of the artisanal mining sector, where youth livelihood portfolios, patterns of mobility and relationships with patrons continue to be in a state of flux

Re-thinking ‘harm’ in relation to children’s work:a ‘situated,’ multi-disciplinary perspective

The UN calls for the elimination of child labour by 2030, and its ‘worst forms’ by 2025. Implicit in this mandate is the assumption that children’s work is harmful, yet no coherent theory of harm exists within the child labour field. Moreover, evidence suggests that simply removing children from supposedly harmful work is often damaging. This paper explores how harm may be understood and identified in the context of children’s work. It reviews and synthesises literature from multiple disciplines, pointing towards a more situated and nuanced approach to harm that incorporates both ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ dimensions.</p

Opportunity or Necessity? Conceptualizing Entrepreneurship at African Small-Scale Mines

This article critically examines the policy environment in place for artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech, labour-intensive mineral extraction and processing – in sub-Saharan Africa, with a view to determining whether there is adequate ‘space’ for the sector’s operators to flourish as entrepreneurs. In recent years, there has been growing attention paid to ASM in the region, particularly as a vehicle for stimulating local economic development. The work being planned under the Africa Mining Vision (AMV), a comprehensive policy agenda adopted by African heads of state in February 2009, could have an enormous impact on this front. One of its core objectives is to pressure host governments into Boosting Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining by following a series of streamlined recommendations. It is concluded, however, that there is a disconnect between how entrepreneurship in ASM has been interpreted and projected by proponents of the AMV on the one hand, and the form it has mostly taken in practice on the other hand. This gulf must be rapidly bridged if ASM is to have a transformative impact, economically, in the region