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COMMENT
May 2016
MODERN MINING
3
T
he problems that AngloGold
Ashanti has been experiencing at
its Obuasi mine in Ghana highlight
the scale of informal mining in Af-
rica and the challenges it presents
to both governments and the formal mining
sector on the continent.
As many readers will already know, the
Obuasi site was invaded by hundreds of ille-
gal miners in early February this year, forcing
AngloGold Ashanti to declare force majeure
and withdraw all non-essential employees
from the mine. The incursion followed the
withdrawal of military protection from the
mine on 2 February, a decision which appar-
ently mystified AngloGold Ashanti at the time.
Its repeated attempts to get clarification – and
action – from the Ghanaian authorities have
failed and it has now invoked the dispute res-
olution provisions in its Mining Lease in an
effort to resolve the situation.
Obuasi has not really been producing gold
on any significant scale since the end of 2014
when AngloGold Ashanti halted the loss-mak-
ing underground operations at the mine – so
the actual impact on production is negligible.
Nevertheless, and as the company points out,
the continued occupation of the lease area
threatens the long-term viability of the mine and
“significantly undermines investor confidence”.
The problems at Obuasi are hardly unique
and I would venture to say that there are scarcely
any mines in Africa – outside of Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa and Zambia – that are
not affected by the problem of informal and/or
illegal mining to a lesser or greater degree.
Artisanal miners are known by many names
around Africa – for example, they are ‘galam-
sey’ in Ghana, ‘zama zamas’ in South Africa
and ‘makorokoza’ in Zimbabwe – but, wherever
they operate, their activities, whether legal or
not, tend to be characterised by poor – often
non-existent – safety standards, environmental
degradation and grossly inefficient exploitation
of orebodies, as well as unacceptable practices
such as child labour.
Despite the undoubted downside of infor-
mal mining, I get the impression that there is a
growing body of opinion that views it sympa-
thetically. Here in South Africa, for example,
we’ve recently had a conference with the
theme ‘Artisanal miners are not criminals’
which was hosted by ActionAid South Africa
and Mining Affected Communities United in
Action (MACUA). Although I didn’t attend
myself, I gather that various speakers – many of
them artisanal miners – pointed out that infor-
mal mining is literally the only way in which
many people in South Africa can earn a living.
The keynote speaker, ActionAid’s Christopher
Rutledge, described informal miners as “hon-
est, hardworking unemployed citizens who eke
out a living from minerals which at a constitu-
tional level belong to all citizens.”
Of course, one would expect organisations
such as ActionAid to adopt the position they do
on informal mining. More surprising perhaps is
a recent article in
The Economist
, which also
looks at informal mining in a positive light.
Entitled ‘In praise of small miners’, the
article argues that small-scale mining is not a
curse. “Globally, artisanal mines employ about
ten times as many people as industrial ones,”
it says. “Moreover, small mining towns are
less affected by the commodity boom-and-bust
cycle than are towns that depend on large-scale
capital investment. Big foreign mining firms
tend to retrench quickly when markets turn
down; small local miners tend to keep digging.
Also, small miners’ earnings tend to be spent
locally. In central Mozambique, for instance,
increased legalisation of formerly illicit gold
mining over a decade has led to a farming
renaissance in many villages, alongside booms
in construction and trade.”
Worldwide, the World Bank estimates that
at least 20 million people – a significant num-
ber of them in Africa – engage in artisanal and
small-scale mining in about 50 countries. Gold
is probably the main mineral mined, although
diamonds and other gemstones, copper/cobalt,
coal and coltan are also important.
I’ve visited artisanal mining operations
in several African countries over the years –
including Ghana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe (where
I was manhandled by a group of illegal min-
ers I tried to photograph) and the DRC – and
I can’t say that I was ever impressed by what
I saw. But informal mining is a phenomenon
that’s not going to go away – indeed, it’s almost
inevitable that it will grow in scale.
Certainly mining companies need to recog-
nise this reality and have strategies in place to
address it. Some problems – such as those that
AngloGold Ashanti has faced at Obuasi – seem
particularly intractable but balancing this is the
fact that a handful of companies seem to have
been remarkably successful in dealing with
‘artisanals’, offering some hope that the formal
and informal mining sectors can – for the most
part – successfully co-exist in Africa.
Arthur Tassell
Informal mining –
a curse
or a blessing for Africa?
Informal mining
is a phenomenon
that’s not going
to go away –
indeed, it’s almost
inevitable that it
will grow in scale.