Production FAQs

What is artisanal mining and small scale mining versus large scale mining?
An artisanal miner is in effect a subsistence miner, who often undertake the activity of mining gold seasonally – for example crops are planted in the rainy season, and mining is pursued in the dry season. They are not officially employed by a mining company, but rather work independently, mining or panning for gold using their own resources.

Small scale miners are often, but not always, legal operators usually working in collectives of about two to 20 or more people. They have greater structure and organization to their workings than perhaps artisanal miners and often make use of rudimentary processing plants.

Large scale mining is typically very capital intense with substantial investments in plant and infrastructure taking place. Large scale mines typically take several years to build and commission and depending on their size can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. They are often managed by listed companies, and have structured management systems and procedures regarding employee, safety, health environment and community issues.

See also: Facts Artisanal Mining

How do mining companies go about mining for gold?
There are two main forms of mining practiced by large scale mining companies, these being surface and underground mining. A full explanation is provided here: mining methods 

What legislation exists to regulate the social and environmental impacts of gold mining?
Each country has its own set of legislation governing mining, and issues that are related to mining such as resettlement, water, air, biodiversity and so on. The nature and extent of this legislation has to be assessed on a country-by-country basis. Globally, growing awareness of environmental issues is being translated into increasingly stringent requirements being placed on mining companies.

International law is that which is defined through various multi-party conventions like the Kyoto Protocol, Convention on Biological Diversity, etc. which countries sign-up to and intact through national legislation. There are of course international bodies which, through contractual agreements, encourage and enforce global standards such as the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards. NGO’s are playing an increasingly active role in defining what can best be described as ‘soft law’.

By developing and promoting and participating voluntary initiatives, such as Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, the Voluntary Principles on Human Rights, and Global Reporting Initiative, multi-stakeholder approaches are being developed to guide the various role players globally.


Is all gold mining legal?
Large-scale mining operations require mining licences and a raft of permits and government approvals thorough the various stages of their operations. Thus the process of construction, commissioning and bringing into production of a large scale operation is generally highly regulated and can take several years. There is, however, growing concern that not all gold mining is being done within countries legal frameworks and these concerns are often centred around the artisanal and small scale mining sector. See also Artisanal and Small Scale Mining

What are some of the by-products of gold mining?
Depending on where gold is being mined there will be different by-products owing to the different mineral compositions of the ore body. These by-products often include copper, silver, and zinc and in certain parts of the world, like South Africa, uranium. Mercury is also present on occasion and in the processing of gold sulphuric acid is generated as a by-product at some operations.

What happens to old mines?
All mines ultimately close. In the past, when environmental requirements were not as stringent as they are now, some mines were abandoned creating legacy issues. Ways of resolving this are being looked into with clean up funds being established in some jurisdictions, alternative uses being found for old mining sites in others and an ongoing dialogue exists between governments, communities and industry on the subject.

The Post Mining Alliance is, for example, one organisation working towards finding solutions to this challenge (http://www.edenproject.com/foundation/60.html ). With the more stringent closure standards being put in place globally mines are now rehabilitated to an agreed standard as defined by that country’s legislation. Shafts are closed and tailings storage areas re-vegetated. The infrastructure of the mine, such as buildings and offices, is typically either decommissioned or put to alternative use, for example as workshops, or businesses, or other industrial facilities.

Is gold mining getting safer with time?
Safety and health are key priorities for gold mining companies. There have been a great number of initiatives aimed at improving safety – too many too mention here.  These initiatives have focused on 2 primary areas: those of technical / managerial systems, and those aimed at changing unsafe behaviours.  Below are a few examples:

Technical / Managerial Systems Innovation

•       An innovation of geotechnical risk management systems.  In open pit mines, risk assessments can be carried out taking account of a number of elements such as water table management, blasting considerations, pit evacuation methods, high wall monitoring etc. Following the assessment, life of mine plans can be optimized to extract the maximum amount of ore, with the minimum waste possible, at tolerable factors of safety.

•        Some ultra deep level mines in South Africa are at close to 4000m and are seismically active (i.e. they are susceptible to underground earthquakes).  Accordingly extensive seismic monitoring networks have been introduced encompassing some of the most sophisticated technical systems to monitor rock mass behaviour, and to provide data for a seismicity management system.  Such Fall of Ground Management system’s have a number of elements:  Firstly, data from the seismic monitoring system is compared with mining plans, and these plans can be modified to reduce the magnitude and frequency of seismic activity. 

This can be called prevention.  Secondly, the protection element of the system.  For example, Adaptions can be made to the rock support density and type, to protect workers from the damaging effects of seismic activity, or attempt to induce activity when working places are not occupied such as during blasting time (i.e. bring on a mini quake when it is safe to do so).  Lastly, some mines train workers to identify hazards, and the importance of adhering to safe working procedures is supported by a “traffic light” system, where working places are classified on a daily basis as to the risk of seismic activity. 

•        Another innovation employed at some open-pit operations is automated dispatching systems used to manage the heavy equipment fleet.  These satellite linked management systems are implemented to optimize mining productivity, but as productive working methods are conducive to safe working methods, there are major safety benefits.  For example heavy equipment movement is automatically scheduled so that vehicle proximity can be maximized.  Rest breaks can be scheduled at no productivity loss to reduce the incidence of one of the major hazards in open-pit mining – that of operator fatigue.

Changing Unsafe Behaviours
There are a range of very different initiatives which have and continue to be undertaken at various mines such as:

•         The DuPont S.T.O.P. programme (Safety Training and Observation Programme)

•        One mining company introduced a so called “Golden Wives” initiative focused on getting the wives of mineworkers involved in safety management.  Wives were introduced to the way safety should be managed, and even visited their husbands underground.  The programme focused on the importance of working safely, and creating just a little peer pressure in the home environment. 

•        Safety culture surveys with the premise being the need to understand how the workforce perceives safety, so that appropriate interventions could be designed.

What is "dirty" gold?

"Dirty" gold is a reference made by lobbyists, mainly NGOs (non-governmental organisations) such as Earthworks and Oxfam USA, who aim to promote improvements in social and environmental aspects of gold mining (often referred to as "Sustainable Development").

Around 2/3rds of gold supply comes from gold mining: the rest comes from recycling (old jewellery, bars, coins and industrial recycling, often referred to as "scrap"), which is around 20% of gold supply, and from stocks of gold bullion held by banks, which is around 13% of supply. So gold jewellery is made from gold from a number of sources, with the most important being gold mining.

The gold mining industry takes its Sustainable Development activities very seriously and there are many strict regulations and guidelines for mining of gold. Most mining companies have robust environmental, social and ethical standards and report on these through their annual reports (see WGC Members' Sustainability Programmes or Links section to link to some of the major gold mining companies' reports).

Recently (in June 2006), following in the spirit of a number of mining related initiatives including the Mining Certification Evaluation Project, the Framework for Responsible Mining, the World Bank's Extractive Industries Review, the MMSD Report and the Global Mining Initiative, the ICMM (International Council on Mining and Metals) and the ICMM Sustainable Development Principles, and the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices (CRJP), a multi-stakeholder group conducted a dialogue in Vancouver  to discuss options for developing a system of independent 3^rd party assurance for mining.

As a result of this dialogue, the "Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance" (IRMA) has been established by a group of mining companies (e.g. Newmont and AnglogoldAshanti), retailers (e.g. Cartier, Tiffany, WalMart and Signet Group), non-government organisations (e.g. Earthworks,  who helped establish the "dirty" gold campaign) and trade associations (e.g. Jewelers of America, ICMM and CRJP) to further develop options for independent third-party assurance in the mining sector (see http://www.responsiblemining.net/). 

A coordinating committee drawn from the group will facilitate a process for the identification of responsible mining standards and a governance model for the assurance system, and has set a goal of establishing initial standards and a system for governance by 2007.