Yves has been an independent consultant for more than 25 years, engaged in developing a legal, responsible and recognised artisanal and small-scale mining activity for rural communities. He holds a PhD in Geosciences from the University of Paris Sud, France, and has formerly led the Alliance for Responsible Mining from 2016 to 2021. Focusing on practical action with concerned groups and communities, he developed skills in training, technical assistance, occupational health & safety, legal and environmental issues. He developed methods that adapt to the diversity of situations, guided by a field-based approach and direct dialogue with mining organisations. His experience comes mostly from implementing projects and studies in both Francophone and Anglophone Africa, working with ASM organisations to enable long-term changes in practices, livelihood improvements, and access to formal markets. His approach focuses on the multidimensional challenges of the activity, covering legal, environmental, social, human rights and governance aspects. He has also worked advising producing countries on mining policies that leverage the economic development potential of this activity in rural areas. Accompanying the development of mercury emission abatement worldwide in the ASM sector under the Minamata Convention, he also developed several technical assistance programs focused on cleaner gold production.
Over the past 10 years, he has progressively focused his activity on responsible mining practices and improving access to markets, through the recognition of mining practices by market actors and supply chain initiatives. His work has led him to conduct audits in various environments as well as establish support programs to improve compliance of artisanal and small-scale mining groups and organisations with standards such as the Certified Trading Chains (CTC) standard in DRC, Fairmined and CRAFT with the Alliance for Responsible Mining. He was heavily involved in the development of the CRAFT standard.
