Morgen Makombo Sikwila
Estimates show that artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) directly employs the biggest number of people in Zimbabwe.
Yet the sector’s reach does not end there: an additional number of people are working in services related to the sector bringing its direct and indirect employment to thousands of people in the country. In fact today, ASM is the top non-farm rural employer in most mineral-rich areas of the country, creating individual and family wealth for hundreds of thousands of households.
Since the 1990s, ASM’s contribution to major mineral supplies has grown exponentially—ranging from gemstones to base metals—due to strong international demand. Take for instance, gold where in the 1990s ASM produced roughly 4% of global supply but now accounts for 30%. In the critical minerals space, ASM contributes around 25% of the global gold supply. All the growth, happening largely outside of regulation, also comes with a variety of harmful social and environmental impacts.
Future growth of the sector must therefore be sustainable and inclusive. As employment in the sector continues to rise, and the demand for minerals remains strong, the Government Bank sees an opportunity to rethink support to ASM, focusing on two key pillars: legitimacy and professionalization. There is for a renewed approach to ASM, driven by the priorities of governments and miners’ while equally built on a realistic understanding of past successes and failures.
The international community needs to express the desire to support governments in scaling up efforts and better calibrating incentives for reforms. There is also recognition of the need for greater coordination amongst technical and financial partners to the sector.
Given the increasing demand for critical minerals, ASM can become an even more integral part of the global economy. This is especially true for Africa. Africa is home to some 30% of the world’s mineral reserves, and produces 40% of the world’s gold – still a key component in digital technology. Other minerals, such as cobalt, tantalum, tungsten and tin are currently mined in only a select few African countries yet draw significant market scrutiny due to social and environmental risks associated with unregulated ASM practices.
According to the World Bank’s latest report, the continued growth of ASM without effective legalization and professionalization will perpetuate the negative impacts typically associated with unregulated activities including poor working conditions, social vulnerabilities, and environmental degradation. And with some minerals, such as gold, the threats to country stability and risks of marginalisation for communities necessitates a more concerted and collaborative approach.
If ASM is to fully contribute to national development and the global economy, there is a need for better support for governments’ ambition to professionalize the sector. This means building on traditional activities such as extension services and capacity building for legal ASM operators while expanding quite dramatically newer fields such as access to finance and domestic commercialization.
Our support will have greatest resonance when properly aligned to miners’ and governments’ priorities such as environmental stewardship, occupational health and safety, and domestic resource mobilisation. Given the scale of the task, multistakeholder partnerships can meaningfully advance ASM’s role in achieving domestic and international development goals.
The industry is already showing a clear commitment to greater engagement, with ASM now firmly “within the tent” at major mining-sector conferences like Investing In African Mining Indaba 2025.
Artisanal and small-scale mining is a key component of future-proofing African mining. When it comes to empowering communities, achieving a just energy transition and maximising Africa’s critical minerals endowment, ASM is an integral part of the industry at large.
Engagements around building sustainable ASM for a growing mining sector must also focus on key capacity-building through industry partnerships and financial innovation to unlock capital for ASM groups and communities. A notable effort in this direction is the multistakeholder partnership initiative.
This initiative should promote sustainable and responsible artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in countries by facilitating partnership between leading industrial gold mining companies, governments, small-scale mining entities and downstream market actors. The initiative on a deep understanding of what has and has not worked in support of ASM over the decades with a view to innovation.
The initiative should balance development and security interventions, supports host government strategies, invests in necessary domestic commercialization infrastructure, and provides guidance to resolve social conflicts and criminality in gold mining communities.
Beyond large, transformative partnerships, improving miners’ access to technologies that can boost their efficiency and sector knowledge is critical.
The World Bank’s global ASM knowledge platform, has been at the forefront of raising awareness of ASM’s development contribution by providing essential data and insights as a public good. Complementing this, collaboration and peer-to-peer learning, addressing challenges miners prioritise – such as environmental sustainability, occupational health and safety and market access – while driving sustainable mine site transformation is important.
Artisanal and small-scale mining has the potential to be a key driver of inclusive economic growth and community engagement for the mining sector in years to come. Industry has a role to play alongside leading international institutions in concretising the opportunity.
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector in sub-Saharan Africa is a sector usually associated with conflict minerals, fatal diseases, smuggling, criminal activity and civil war.
Throughout Africa the ASM sector is unfortunately viewed in a negative and distorted manner with little appreciation or understanding for the realities and hardship of miners, their families and communities. The sector is burdened and plagued with issues ranging from child labour, gender inequality, the spread of HIV/AIDS, environmental devastation, poor health and safety, migrant workers, lack of capital and fair markets, and conflict with the private large-scale mining sector.
There are many overlapping and complex drivers, challenges, constraints and issues that characterize the sector and considers the potential solutions through the adoption of appropriate best practice, hopefully leading to sustainable livelihoods in the ASM sector and overall poverty alleviation.
Key issues, such as institutional capacity, governance, assistance schemes, legislation, miners’ organizations, gender mainstreaming, child labour, health and safety, environmental protection, mineral trading and marketing, adding value, finance and credit, and the co-existence with the large-scale mining sectors will leverage economic growth to greater heights.
Morgen Makombo Sikwila
MSc Peace and Governance
BSc Counselling
Diploma in Environmental Health
Certificate in Marketing Management
