ICMM and Artisanal Mining (ASM)

Oct 06-12, 2008

8th Annual CASM Conference

Presentation at the “Managing the Interface between LSM and ASM” Brasilia, Brazil

Toni Aubynn

WHO IS ICMM?

• The International Council on Mining and Metals is a CEO-led industry group that addresses key priorities and emerging issues within the industry.

• Seeks to play a leading role within the industry in promoting good industry practice and improved performance

• Encourages greater consistency of approach nationally and across different commodities thru its members

• Vision: a respected mining and metals industry that is widely recognized as essential for society and as a key contributor to SD

Background

• The ICMM Toronto Declaration, adopted on May 15th 2002 at the end of the Global Mining Initiative (GMI) Conference, provided the basis for ICMM to develop its work program

• “Artisanal, small-scale mining and orphan site legacy issues are important and complex. However, they are beyond the capacity of ICMM to resolve. Governments and international agencies should assume the lead role in addressing them.”

New realization:

• Still holds the view that Governments and International agencies should retain the leading role in addressing ASM issues

• Recognises that there may be mutual interest in engaging more proactively in multi-stakeholder efforts around ASM issues. In part this reflects:

– The intersection between a growing number of member companies large-scale operations and ASM activity;

– A growing sense of the linkages between ASM issues and other ICMM programmatic areas of focus (e.g. such as security and human rights, community development, etc.)

– An increasing recognition ICMM members have a shared interest in engaging proactively on ASM issues.

Oct 2007: ICMM established a Working Group ASM

Key drivers of ICMM’s engagement with ASM• ASM has a potentially important role to play in the social

and economic development of many countries;

• The challenging nature of the social, environmental, economic and H&S issues associated with ASM;

• Roots of ASM challenges are informality, illegality, and the absence of alternative livelihoods;

Key drivers cont’d

• Such challenges are not amenable to easy fixes, and require collaborative partnership approaches;

• The need to better understand the interfaces between ASM and large-scale mining (LSM), and identify potential areas for ICMM members to constructively engage on ASM issues; and

• Progress on engagement is hindered by a lack of practical supportive guidance that derives lessons from anecdotal experiences and encourages the spread of good practice.

Collaboration between ICMM and CASM and progress

• This is focused on quite specific interventions, under the auspices of the CASM-ICMM partnership on LSM-ASM

• Developing guidance on the interfaces between ASM and LSM:

– Drafting a guidance document (in conjunction with CASM/CommDev) around the above subject area

• Undertaking practical joint initiatives at the project level:– Ghana– DRC.

• Co-organizing a session on LSM and ASM; facilitating support from some of the member companies (e.g. site visit hosted by Anglo Brazil)

• The Mercury WG of ICMM is overseeing the development of a paper on Mercury and ASM by Prof. Kevin Telmer of the University of Victoria. Final product is expected be of immense benefit to ASM

THE GHANA CASE

LESSEONS OF TRIED EFFORTS AND CHALLENGES

• NATIONAL LEVELOutlaw ASM: Colonial and approx three decades

post-colonialPolice and military raids (“Scatter era”) 70s-Mid

1980s Passage of the mercury and ASM law in 1989Rhetoric of identifying areas for ASM

Tried efforts and challenges: the Ghana case

• AT LSM level1. Era of “enclaves” and “conclaves”

(underground) largely until the mid-1980s

2. Direct confrontation Mid-80s and early 90s

3. Arrests and trials at the law courts

4. Baiting—introduction of ALPs

5. Accommodation of ASM

Tried efforts and challenges: the Ghana case cont’d

Tried efforts and challenges: the Ghana case cont’d

Efforts Challenges

1. Direct confrontation by company security

2. Arrest and trials at the courts

3. Baiting with ALP (e.g. GFG’s SEED at Amuanda; GSR’s GISOPP at Bogosu &

Akyempim)

Creates resistance in ASM operators

Operators often heavily armed

Negative PR and reputational implications

Impossible to arrest any significant numbers.

Sympathies and ineffective levels of punishment

Poor targeting Long gestation of projects Unattractive income

differential between receipts from ASM and ALP

Gold Fields’ “Live and let’s live:” A model of ASM accommodation?

• Deliberate engagement and accommodation of ASM in as long as they cause no threat to operations and themselves

• Provide Management and organizational structure with simple and workable rules

• Provide technical support and extension to operators

• Link production to market• Regular engagement and recognition• Involve government

The dynamics of future relationship between ASM and LSM in Ghana: Key drivers to watch

• The dynamics of metal price• Availability of jobs and ALP• Effective multi-stakeholder approach to

addressing ASM issues • Preparedness to stay within “allotted space” • Increasing use of relatively modern equipments• Mainstream ASM operations and whether

operators maintain the political hostage of governments

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Thank you.