Congo’s South Kivu governor suspends mining operations in province
The decision will hit artisanal miners of metals such as gold and tin hard, as they are the region's dominant producers.
Almost 60% of payments by gold mining companies to governments come in the form of income and corporation taxes, while a further 15% are royalties, the WGC says.
While the global gold industry injected more than US$171 billion into the world’s economy in 2013, the countries that benefitted the most from such contribution were mainly African and Asian nations, the World Gold Council says.
Speaking to MINING.com, John Mulligan, head of member and investor relations at the WGC, said that even though the focus of the report released this week is on formal, large scale mining, the council acknowledges that artisanal and small-scale (ASM) gold miners can play a significant role in local economies and communities of several developing countries.
The main issue, he says, is that reliable and comparable data on the socio-economic impacts of artisanal gold production across different producing countries is not currently available.
“It is important that moves to increase transparency in the gold market do not unintentionally further marginalize ASM producers or drive them further in to the grip of exploitative middle men or criminal networks,” Mulligan says.
Interestingly enough, the countries for which gold mining represented, in 2013, a very substantial part (percentage) of GDP (>5%) were mostly African and Asians, with the only exception of Peru.
Many of these countries, says Mulligan, have experienced significant growth in gold mining’s contribution to their national economies:
He adds that is key for the industry and governments to continue focusing on how to minimize the risk of artisanal and small-scale gold mining funding conflict, while promoting a responsible minerals trade in conflict-affected areas.
According to the WGC’s latest report, gold mining has made significant progress in seeking to develop local human capital and skills. It shows that over 90% of the industry’s employees in most gold producing countries are local workers. (Click on this infographic to see it full size)
5 Comments
frankinca
Gold mining is still a great example of providing jobs to less educated people, and pay can be reasonably high because of the often inaccessible areas where mining takes place and local labor is the most economical..
Bill_Wall
Artisanal mining is often considered a high health and safety risk. Plus, government revenues are not reliable from those sources. So it seems that some African governments would like to see the end of it, replaced by conventional mining that is safer and provides a larger, more reliable to source of royalty revenue to the central government, and at the same time providing training and good jobs for locals.
This article seems to provide an upbeat view of artisanal mining. I suppose if it is compared to locals doing very little in a subsistence lifestyle, it is definitely a positive win for them.
MINING.com Editors
Definitely not the intention of this article. Besides, you seem to be equalling artisanal to illegal. Your very good point would apply only to illegal mining.
Regards,
Cecilia
Dylan Elek McFarlane
Most of the deposits are small, marginal, and often un-economic for heavy, mechanized mining. There are range of scales at which mining takes place, not just small and large, and governments should accommodate each with appropriate policies, incentives and regulations. Politics favours large mines (reputation of politicians), but artisanal mining has a greater net benefit to these African and Asian countries. Investors will not take the risks associated small and marginal projects unless governments provide more security, access, assurances. Follow the money and the power and normally there will be middle men taking advantage.
chat.ceo.ca/AFY
ASM’s are a very common livelihood in Peru. The miner will rent out the property either from the government or landowner and mine a high grade vein until there is no more or it is lost. The formalization of the ASM in Peru still has a very long way to go, rough estimates say there are nearly 500,000 miners operating this way with only 70,000 registered to be tracked and pay taxes. A new toll milling operation only dealing with legal ASM is Anthem United which is being discussed here http://www.chat.ceo.ca/AFY and view this article on toll milling which was recently read by the mining mister of Peru http://ceo.ca/2015/05/21/a-mining-investors-guide-to-toll-milling-in-peru/