Op-Ed: ASM risk is becoming harder to manage

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is increasingly recognized as a significant risk for mining companies, governments, and the environment. While ASM provides livelihoods for over 40 million people worldwide, its unregulated nature in many developing countries leaves governments with limited information on production, revenues, employment, and operations. This lack of data makes it difficult to manage the risk effectively.

Mining companies like Gold Fields, AngloGold Ashanti, and Southern Copper have flagged ASM as a potential source of security, reputational, environmental, social, and financial impacts across their operations. The risk is also material to governments, who struggle to monitor the production, revenues, and environmental consequences of ASM due to its largely unregulated status.

The risk associated with ASM is not uniform, as it varies depending on the region, the legality of the operations, and the extent of environmental, labour, health, and safety controls. The issue is increasingly being discussed in relation to revenue leakage, deforestation, mercury emissions, concession risk, and supply-chain due diligence.

Despite the significant financial impacts, constrained production monitoring makes it challenging for governments to target inspections, protect revenue, and reduce harm without comprehensive knowledge of where ASM activity is concentrated and how it is evolving. Small mining footprints can still lead to large environmental consequences, as evidenced by the deforestation linked to mining in the Peruvian Amazon.

In some contexts, ASM-related risk extends beyond mining itself, supporting livelihoods for tens of millions of people globally. However, any serious discussion about ASM must acknowledge the need for improved regulation, monitoring, and management of this sector to mitigate its negative impacts.