Indonesia: Professionalization of the Artisanal Gold Mining Sector

In terms of the gold that the sector produces, there can be tiny groups, even individuals, eking out a living with wooden pans in creeks whose gold is invisible to the downstream market, through to well organised, 200 tonne per day, high recovery lixiviation systems that can perform according to “code” and produce perfectly visible and traceable “responsible artisanal gold”. There can be rain-forest destroying hydraulic cannons operating illegally in protected areas; there is highly polluting mercury amalgamation; there wild and toxic “cowboy cyanide” operations contaminating groundwater; and sometimes, but far too rarely, there are professional and well run, highly efficient and low footprint systems that operate to international standards. In short, there are a huge variety of operations and standards of practice operating under the banner of ASGM but only a few of them are professionally run allowing them to be considered sources of responsible gold.
read more... https://www.artisanalgold.org/2019/09/professionalization-of-the-artisanal-gold-mining-sector/