Governments struggling to manage the complex and sometimes chaotic artisanal and small-scale mining sector have a new toolkit, which was developed by the Intergovernmental Forums on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF).

IGF is a Canada-based, international member-driven organisation that provides national governments with the opportunity to work collectively to achieve their sustainable mining goals.

The ‘IGF Guidance for Governments: Managing artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)’ guidance report presents a step-by-step process that governments can use to develop, implement and monitor an effective ASM management strategy.

IGF notes that the guidance includes direction on how to ensure effective, inclusive strategy development and implementation, as well as effective overall governance of the process.

The organisation states that the ASM guidance process included an initial draft that was endorsed by its 56 member governments at the forum’s twelfth yearly general meeting in October 2016.

IGF points out that several member governments have already requested assistance from the IGF Secretariat in implementing the guidelines.

“The informal mining sector can be a source of social conflict and can result in serious impacts on human health and the environment,” states IGF Secretariat director Greg Radford.

He says that integrating small-scale mining into the formal economy can help miners and communities by increasing security, creating a path towards more stable incomes and ensuring that safer and more environmentally sustainable practices are employed.

Radford adds that it can also help spur longer-term economic and social development and ensure that the entire nation benefits from the exploitation of its natural resources.

He remarks that ASM is a complex and diversified sector across much of the developing world, ranging from informal individual miners seeking a subsistence livelihood to small-scale formal commercial mining entities producing minerals in a responsible way, as well as, in certain cases, regrettably, those operators of varying size in the informal sector that take advantage of a lack of governance to mine for their own ends entirely.

Radford comments, however, that, for many countries, ASM is an important source of livelihood, as well as, at times, a cause of environmental damage. “There is a pressing need to enhance the quality of life for miners working outside of formal legal and economic systems and to enhance the contribution of the sector for sustainable development,” he emphasises.

Moreover, he highlights that the exact scale of ASM worldwide is unknown, given that many operating in the sector do so outside of formal economic and legal structures. “However, it is estimated that the sector provides a livelihood for tens of millions of people globally,” says Radford.

Therefore, he notes, the effective management of a sector as complex as ASM is “extremely challenging”.

“This is why we strove to design a flexible toolkit, which will help our member governments implement a strategy which is founded on global best practices and then adapted to suit national goals and realities,” Radford elaborates.

He says that this is the first in a series of IGF guidance documents aimed at helping governments manage key issues relating to mining and sustainable development. Radford explains that the IGF Secretariat developed the guidance document at the request of member States who sought to expand on the direction provided by the IGF’s flagship Mining Policy Framework.

The guidance document was developed by RCS Global, with input from stakeholders during multiple global consultations in 2015 and 2016. RCS Global is a responsible raw materials supply chain audit and advisory firm.

“While some governments have made progress on managing ASM, many lack the capacity and technical knowledge to achieve their goals,” says RCS global director Nicholas Garrett.

He says it is for these reasons that it is important that the guidance report provides governments with a clear pathway to effectively manage the ASM sector and to ensure that civil servants have the necessary skills. “It also enables governments to be more competent partners in joint projects with industry,” Garrett adds.

Further, he says that the guidance report is an equally important resource for industry, which can use it as a source of good practice to provide governments with or to complement governments’ existing efforts to manage ASM.

“When ASM is managed properly, everyone benefits. Industry can help governments to engage with this tool in order to improve the operational environment and to achieve their goals of responsibly sourcing materials,” Garrett concludes.