استخراج از معادن در مقیاس کوچک، فقر و توسعه اقتصادی در کشورهای جنوب صحرای آفریقا: مرور کلی

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)—low tech, labour intensive mineral processing and excavation activity—is an economic mainstay in rural sub-Saharan Africa, providing direct employment to over two million people. This paper introduces a special issue on ‘Small-scale mining, poverty and development in sub-Saharan Africa’. It focuses on the core conceptual issues covered in the literature, and the policy implications of the findings reported in the papers in this special issue.

The term ‘small-scale mining’ first surfaced in the United Nations publication, Small-Scale Mining in the Developing Countries ( UN, 1972). Although the topic was very much an afterthought on the donor agenda at the time, the report nevertheless proved extremely important: it highlighted, for the first time, the economic significance of small-scale mining in developing countries, and underscored the importance of facilitating the design and implementation of relevant laws and policies through the identification and ‘description’ of the sector's ‘significant characteristics’ ( UN, 1972, p. 1). The message resonating in policymaking circles at the time was that artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is populated by businessmen looking to ‘get rich quick’. The sector continued to be strongly associated with entrepreneurship throughout the late-1970s and 1980s. Similar views were expressed in the literature at the time. Alpan (1986, p. 95), for example, pointed out that ‘in contrast with many other rural development schemes, small-scale miners generally are self-motivated and start their enterprise without government encouragement and assistance’. Similarly, Nöetstaller (1987), who produced the seminal report, Small-Scale Mining: A Review of the Issues on behalf of the World Bank, argued that ‘the small enterprise segment has consistently been identified as a fertile ground for the growth of indigenous entrepreneurship…[that] in mining, this is particularly true for the artisanal operations’ ( Nöetstaller, 1987, p. 16). These, and allied, discussions, would inform a policy dialogue that called for improved productivity and efficiency in the activities of these ‘entrepreneurs’, its main manifestations being improved equipment and other forms of technical extension.

The aim of this collection of papers is to cast light on the dynamics of ASM in sub-Saharan Africa. The region's workforce is, at present, over two million strong, and is engaged in the extraction of a wide range of—predominantly—precious minerals and stones, including gold, sapphires and diamonds. The sector is characterized by complex labour hierarchies, unique forms of production and informal systems of assistance, all of which have evolved, for the most part, in an environment devoid of regulation and formal support. Whilst detailed and indeed thought-provoking, the papers presented in this issue only scratch the surface. It is hoped that this issue will stimulate parallel work and new ideas for research that will inform an ASM policy dialogue which, in the case of sub-Saharan Africa, is heavily disconnected from the realities on the ground.