In three sentences: Current ASM approaches continue to have high failure rates due to lack of coordination, commitment from stakeholders, and implementation challenges. While conceptual frameworks are well developed, practical guidance is lacking. To be successful, future approaches need coordinated action through a shared framework, incentives for stakeholder commitment, and solutions to critical implementation barriers such as lack of state capacity.

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Global ASM
Scoping Study
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February 2013
Nicholas Garrett and Dan Paget

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INTRODUCTION: KEY QUESTIONS WE ASKED
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1 How can ASM issues possibly be resolved?
2 Who is best placed to do so?
3 What are current practices?
4 What are the strengths and weaknesses of current practices?
5 What needs to change for ASM issues to be resolved?
Although practice on ASM issues
is being advanced, design,
stakeholder engagement and
implementation issues persist.

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CONTENT OF PRESENTATION
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Consider ASM risk vs ASM development perspective (different
schools of practice with different champions)
Review principal ASM approaches (limited to the three
dominant approaches over the past decade)
Evaluate current practices in each approach (what is being done
and how well does it work)
Consider the key challenges in ASM approaches

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HOW TO TREAT ASM: DEVELOPMENT VS RISK PERSPECTIVE
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Development
perspective
(longer-term)
Normally used by
NGOs, governments
and donors (still often
time-bound and project
based)
ASM
development
responses
Risk
perspective
(shorter-
term)
Normally used by
companies
ASM risk
mitigation
responses

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HOW TO TREAT ASM: COMPANY RESPONSES
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LSM-ASM
RESPONSES
SUCCESS
LEVEL
METHOD
Venezuela:
Las Cristinas, Placer
Dome
Medium
Policy of tolerance, technical assistance to ASM workers for formalisation,
mercury and safety issues
Tanzania: North
Mara, Africa Barrick
Gold
Low
Technical and organisational assistance to ASGM producers working near
LSM site.
Tanzania:
Williamson Diamond
Mine, De Beers
N/A
Technical and organisational assistance to diamond mining of ASM
producers working near LSM site. (Conceptually developed, but never
implemented.)
Ghana:
Abosso, Goldfields
Low Live and Let Live approach. Segregation of concession.
Honduras:
Eurocantera,
Goldlake
High
ASM workers employed to liberate gold in deposits on LSM site. LSM
company processes ore. (Not an acute ASM hotspot.)
Philippines:
Benguet Corporation
Medium
LSM company identifies sites for ASGM, assists set-up and buys ore from
ASGM producers.
Bolivia:
San Simon,
Excalibur
Low Dialogue with ASM workers and signed agreement.
Nicaragua:
Multiple sites
Low LSM companies buys ore from ASM workers and processes.

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HOW TO TREAT ASM: DEVELOPMENT ISSUES CAUSE ASM RISKS
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ASM DEVELOPMENT ISSUES (ILLUSTRATIVE LIST)
Informality
Low
investment
Weak enforcement
Negative
externalities in
communities
ASM RISKS FOR COMPANIES
No reasons to stay
off LSM concessions
Short-term, risk-
taking behaviour
Security risks
Risk to social and
political license

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HOW TO TREAT ASM: APPROACHES FOR SHORT- AND LONG-TERM
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ASM
development
issues
Address root causes
(longer-term)
ASM
development
responses
ASM risks
Contain and
manage risks
(shorter-term)
ASM risk-
mitigation
responses
Companies require an integrated ASM strategy, but LSM-ASM practice
remains underdeveloped:

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THREE KEY DEVELOPMENT POLICY APPROACHES TO ASM
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Formalisation
Ethical
certification &
due diligence
Technical
assistance /
Mercury
reduction

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KEY DOCUMENTS: FORMALISATION
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BARRETO, 2011
Legislation guide for ASM
1
UNEP, 2013
Analysis of Formalisation
Approaches
2
SDC, 2011
Experiences with
Formalisation in 4 countries
UNEP, 2013
National Plan for ASM
3 4

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KEY DOCUMENTS: ETHICAL CERTIFICATION AND DUE DILIGENCE
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ARM AND FLO, 2010
Fairtrade and Fairmined
Gold Standard
1
OECD, 2012
Due Diligence Guidance,
Supplement for Gold
2
BETTER GOLD, 2013
Next generation closed-pipe
ethical certification
ITSCI, 2009
Traceability scheme
3 4

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KEY DOCUMENTS: TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND MERCURY
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NOETSTALLER, 1987
Small-Scale Mining Study
1
UNECA, 2002
Compendium of best
practices
2
GMP, 2006
Training Manual for Miners
UNEP, 2013
Global Mercury Treaty
3 4

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A number of challenges have
been both common and
persistent, that concern:
APPROACHES: PERSISTENT CHALLENGES
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STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
IMPLEMENTATION
DESIGN
Persistent
high rate of
failure.

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DESIGN CHALLENGE: COOPERATION AND COORDINATION
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On ASM,
stakeholders often
work in isolation
from one another,
which yields poor
results. Incentives
are often ill-
understood and
misaligned and
initiatives can in
the worst case
work against one
another.
LSM
action
LSM
initiative
Govt
action
Govt
initiative
Donor
action
Donor
initiative
ASM
initiative
ASM
action

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DESIGN CHALLENGE: COMMUNICATION AND VISION
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Stakeholders find it difficult to work together because they do not share
visions of what should be done with ASM, or who should do it. This
means incentives are ill-understood.
Stakeholders should play different roles and align their approaches in
ASM initiatives, so a common idea of how things should work is critical.
We believe it is conceivable to translate this idea into an action
framework from which coordinated and aligned activities can derive.

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In some circumstances, stakeholders could coordinate their actions on ASM
and collaborate to improve their joint impact, but incentives to collaborate are
ill-understood and not acted upon.
DESIGN CHALLENGE: COOPERATION AND COORDINATION
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COORDINATED ACTIVITIES THROUGH A FRAMEWORK
Government
action
LSM
action
Donor
action
ASM
organisations
action
NGO
action

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ENGAGEMENT CHALLENGE: INTEREST AND COMMITMENT
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Governments receive few immediate gains from supporting ASM and
may e.g. due to elections, not be incentivised to act.
Donor interest varies between countries and over time. Commitment is
often-time bound, particularly in Africa and engagement is erratic.
Companies do not always recognise that ASM is an issue and
understand the true costs of ASM.
Artisanal miners are often marginalised and not collectively organised and
thus often lack a coherent voice (and thus viewpoint). Protest and invastons
could be regarded as a form of voice.
NGOs often have their own agenda and their involvement is sometimes
ad-hoc and many are new to ASM. Success rate in Africa is weak.
In the absence of the right incentives, ASM projects fail.

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Tests of well-designed licensing regimes:
IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGE: LEGAL SYSTEMS
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1 Are the definitions between categories consistent?
2 Are accompanying regulations and requirements
appropriately adjusted for each category?
3 Can licenses be upgraded or downgraded?
4 Are the perverse incentives to not upgrade or
downgrade such as taxes or regulations?
5 Can states administer it feasibly?
Artisanal and
small-scale mining
Small-scale mining
Artisanal mining
Micro-scale mining
Legal and
regulatory
frameworks can
create obstacles
for successful
engagement in
the ASM sector,
e.g. in the DRC.

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States
suffer from
technical, human
or organisational
capacity
constraints
They are most
acute at the
regional and local
levels
Sub-standard
regulation
Barriers to
formalisation
Diminished
monitoring
ability
Poor management of
ASM Zones, processes
or projects
IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGE: STATE CAPACITY
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This process is for
illustrative
purposes only.

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IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGE: RESISTANCE TO REFORM
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RESISTANCE TO REFORM
ASM
communities
ASM civic
representatives
ASM dealers ASM suppliers
Agencies whose
raison d’etre is
addressing
ASM issues
Government,
particularly in
the context of
elections
National and local stakeholders can create
obstacles to reforms not in their interest.
ASM institutional and stakeholder analysis
should be built into ASM project design.

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IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGE: MINERS’ COSTS AND BENEFITS
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Are artisanal miners’ priorities adequately
respected in technical assistance?
Do artisanal miners respect trainers and
technical assistance from NGOs?
What are the incentives that they face to
change their behaviour?
What chance do ASM projects have that do
not consider miners’ costs and benefits?
Miners must have
a sense of
ownership of
interventions to
increase
likelihood of
success. A
concept linked to
their perceived
costs and benefits
and participation.

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Current practice have been well developed conceptually.
Nevertheless, ASM initiatives continue to display a high rate of failure.
Most of all, this is due to:
Summary: Persistent Challenges
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LACK OF COORDINATION AND COOPERATION
LACK OF VISION AND COMMUNICATION
LACK OF INTEREST AND COMMITMENT
CRITICAL IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES
LACK OF PARTNER CAPACITY
LACK OF PRACTICAL GUIDANCE

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Text
Key Points Discussed by Group
Governments receive few immediate gains from supporting ASM
Donor interest varies with policy fashions. It is inconsistent between
countries and over time.
Companies do not always recognise that ASM is an issue and understand
the true costs of ASM.
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Paradoxically, current practices are developed in detail, but projects continue to fail. While
current practices are well developed conceptually, they are not well developed to assist project
design or implementation.
Practical challenges are the critical ones that reduce project successfulness. Approaches need
to be developed, and practical guidelines need to be developed.
Integrating risk and development perspectives is a key step towards addressing the causes of
ASM risks for companies.
Partnership and collaborative approaches should be used to galvanise actors to act.
ASM is both a development issue, and a risk issue for companies. Addressing ASM as a development
issue can resolve risk issues in the long term, but immediate risk issues should be addressed before
ASM is tackled as a development issue, especially at sites where ASM is well-developed already.