I have been mining for the Afro-Colombian communities in Colombia. It’s not a very positive world –the process of slavery that our ancestors went through was partly linked to mining.
Stakeholders of the jewellery and precious metals industry recently had the rare opportunity to meet directly with representatives of artisanal and small-scale gold miners.
In July, our latest ASM-PACE report was released, focusing on the ASM of gold and tin – two 'conflict minerals' under the Dodd-Frank Act, Section 1502 – in the Itombwe Reserve in South Kivu, DRC.
I was recently in Mongolia to give a presentation on artisanal mining and conservation for the "Sustainable Artisanal Mining Project" ("SAM") funded by the Swiss and co-implemented with the Mongolian government.