Artisanal and Small-scale Mining

Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) is estimated to employ more than 30 million people worldwide. Over 150 million people depend on this sub-sector of the extractive industries.

Typically ASM produces low-price bulk material like coal, certain industrial minerals and construction materials for local markets, or high-unit-value minerals like gold and precious stones (diamonds and colored gem-stones), as well as higher priced bulk ores and industrial minerals (tin, chrome, coltan, barite, fluorspar, etc.) designated mainly for export.

Despite of producing 15% of the world's gold, almost 90% of all coloured gemstones, or other highly valuable commodities, the vast majority of artisanal miners live in extreme poverty, are caught in a vicious circle of exploitation and informality, and face serious risks for health and environment.

Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, properly done, is an important source of income and driver of local development. For that, it needs an appropriate enabling legal framework, organization and access to information, markets and technology.

What tbb.hru can offer:

Felix Hruschka has beeen working since 1992 for a large number of ASM Projects in Latin America, Asia and Africa, as adviser or team leader; covering almost all relevant aspects from developing and introducing improved techniques in cooperation with miners at grassroots level, to community development, and to providing high-level advisory to Governments at policy level.

Expertise on ASM, mostly related to gold but also to coal, barite, diamond and coloured gemstone mining, is one of tbb.hru's core strengths. Approximately 80% of all projects carried out by tbb.hru had a direct focus on, or at least strong (positive) implications for the ASM sector.

Aligned with tbb.hru's core values of ethical conduct and backed up by our own due diligence, we are not accepting any assignment with a focus of "resolving ASM problems" through eviction, erradication, exclusion, criminalization or similar, negatively affecting ASM communities or the livelihoods of miners and their families.