The government of Mongolia, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, signed Monday a deal with the country’s gold producers association, which aims to reduce illegal extraction of the metal by reducing barriers for them to become formal miners, Xinhua reports.
The memorandum would allow also small miners to upgrade their equipment and raise funds, while forcing them to follow Mongolia’s regulations over its huge gold reserves, which were only discovered after the former Soviet satellite began democratic reforms in 1990.
Currently an estimated 100,000 Mongolians work as informal miners, producing more gold than the formal industrial sector, which alone contributes more than 20% of Mongolia’s gross domestic product.
This is one of the reasons why the government has for years turned a blind eye to the so-called “ninja miners,” as they are frequently spotted working at night, with their plastic gold-panning basins slung over their backs, resembling the characters of the TV cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
These miners are constantly shoved onto smaller pieces of land by mining giants, but today’s announcement may soon change their faith, as the government also announced it has set up a council that will oversee the implementation of the memorandum.
Image by NPR, via YouTube
4 Comments
Plinko
Big money always is ‘big money’ and is more powerful than any small miner. Any ‘small miner’ has to and will be ‘shoved off’ should a resource merit development – that is a matter of fact.
Tom
The government decision is a positive step. I means ninjas will no longer have sell their gold at a discounted price to middle-men who smuggle it out of the country. However, as part of the deal the use of mercury to capture gold flakes will have to stop. Mercury poisons rivers and streams for scores of decades and endangers the health of every person and every animal that drinks the contaminated water.
Dan
Over the years I have seen many such initiatives launched in different parts of the world. They have never worked. In Mongolia with its weak governance and non existent law enforcement, legitimizing informal mining is just another step towards legitimizing unbridled environmental destruction. It is a recipe for ensuring a landscape littered with abandoned mine shafts and mercury contamination for generations to come.
Ramsay
Mongolia’s fucked up country, poor and dirty, so backward!!