Artisanal gold mining plays an important role in sustainable development of rural communities. The objectives of this study were to: i) assess the environmental impacts of recent artisanal gold mining activities in Chimanimani National Park (CNP), eastern Zimbabwe, and ii) discuss the associated implications of artisanal gold mining to sustainable development in the Chimanimani area. Data were ...

Introduction Artisanal gold mining is an activity ensuring the survival of about 700,000 families in Burkina Faso with a considerable contribution to the national economy. Techniques and chemicals used in the operation, have adverse impacts on health and the environment. Our study aims to evaluate the perceptions and knowledge of these different impacts among artisanal gold miners. Methods A ...

INTRODUCTION This study focuses on accidents in artisanal mining, to support policies improving miners' employability. MATERIALS AND METHODS Based on a questionnaire administered in November 2009 to a sample of 180 miners from the artisanal mining of LUPOTO, in the Province of Katanga, we explored significant trends between the accidents and their consequences and behavioral or sociological v...

the uncontrolled spread of illegal artisanal small-scale gold mining (asm), popularly termed “galamsey” in ghana, has, for decades, impacted adversely upon water bodies, soils, wildlife, human health, and safety. a lack of understanding, however, of the types of galamsey, their operational attributes, and their relative impacts has unfortunately hindered an effective policy response despite num...

Gold mining by itinerant miners is acknowledged by the International Labour Organization (ILO) as the means of livelihood for more than 13 million people in the developing world. Though there are many potential socio-economic benefits of smallscale mining, there are also negative impacts from these small and inefficient operations due to wasteful extraction and processing techniques, often invo...

BACKGROUND An estimated 0.5 to 1.5 million informal miners, of whom 30-50% are women, rely on artisanal mining for their livelihood in Tanzania. Mercury, used in the processing gold ore, and arsenic, which is a constituent of some ores, are common occupational exposures that frequently result in widespread environmental contamination. Frequently, the mining activities are conducted haphazardly ...

A hot, dry wind envelopes a statuesque woman as she kneels over wind-sifted trays of tinbearing pulverized ore in Uis, Namibia. In Bolivia, a nine-year old girl scrambles down a steep pit wall yet again to refill her bucket of metal-rich sand. And yet another woman stokes the fire in her wood burning stove in the Philippines, releasing the mercury from doré in a poorly ventilated kitchen; the t...

Gibb and O’Leary (2014) provided a timely review of the health effects of mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), calling for immediate implementation of the recently signed Minamata Convention on Mercury. They noted that Article 7 of the Convention [United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 2013] requires national action plans that include a public health strategy on mercury...

the quality of hg contaminated sediments in artisanal gold mining areas of tanzania have to date only been assessed through bulk chemical analysis. however, measurement of contaminant levels alone has a limited ability to predict adverse effects on living resources. in this study we investigated the possible effects of hg contaminated sediments from the river mabubi which drains the artisanal g...