Artisanal and small-scale mining handbook for Southern African region

Mozambique is a board member of the African Union (AU) and participates in all its activities and related organisations. In 2009, Heads of State and Government of the AU adopted the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) to achieve key mineral resource development goals.

Mozambique is also a member of the OAGS and, in this regard, participates in the activities that this organisation promotes, including cooperation with other international geo-scientific organisations. As a result of the geo-scientific cooperation between OAGS and the EGS, in August 2019 the DNGM hosted a seminar in the Tete Province, Mozambique, where technicians from African Portuguese-speaking countries participated in training on environmental management. This training aimed at building capacity in the Geological Surveys of the African continent in matters related to the assessment and management of mineral resources, use and sustainable land development, mitigation of natural risks and environmental protection. This training was co-financed by DG-DEVCO and by a consortium comprising 12 European Geological Surveys. Furthermore, a seminar on ASM in the Southern African Region was held in September 2022 in Maputo, Mozambique under the auspices of the PanAfGeo-2 Project, which is co-organised between DNGM and GEUS, thus representing the continuation of the capacity building activities of the Geological Surveys of Africa.

ASM in Mozambique has potential and relevance for socio-economic development; however, this activity is mostly characterised by high levels of informality and illegality thus resulting in poor knowledge of the real contribution that can be obtained from this activity, in addition to intensive, seasonal work, migration, environmental, social, safety and health degradation. Nonetheless, taking into consideration the challenges of this mining activity, the Government, through Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, Mozambique (MIREME)/DNGM, is implementing the Strategy for the Development of Artisanal Mining, approved in 2017, through the creation of mining cooperatives and mining extension services with the objectives to: (i) establish organisational and operational models appropriate for artisanal mining activities; (ii) organise and formalise illegal artisanal operators into associations or cooperatives; (iii) train and strengthen mining associations and cooperatives; (iv) assist technically and scientifically the artisanal miners in mining processes to ensure added value to their products; (v) assist miners in the economic evaluation of mineral products; and (vi) register and control production. Apart from that, the Government of the Republic of Mozambique, through MIREME and the National Institute for Statistics (INE), in order to support the program for formalisation of mining cooperatives to artisanal mining operators, has carried out for the first time a census of artisanal miners. This census is aimed at providing valuable data and statistical information, which will allow a better and realistic definition of policies and strategies for the support and management of ASM in Mozambique. As a result of these efforts, in 2020, around 1,044 ASM hotspots, legal and illegal, were mapped at the national level against the registered around 100 designated and current areas and 81 mining associations.

All in all, this seminar on ASM in the Southern African Region will greatly contribute to empower participants from different countries with proper skills in regard to ASM and they will later on apply sustainable mining methods in their respective countries.

In addition, this handbook, which is an outcome of the training session, will serve as a guideline for the management of this complex mining activity.

We would therefore like to thank everyone who directly or indirectly contributed in the organisation and success of this seminar.