Artisanal mining - not as simple as you might think

What do you think when people say "artisanal mining" ? Do you start with "illegal" cobalt mining in the DRC, and turf wars (and worse) in South Africa. Or do you come at this from a different perspective - seeing them as exploited communities trying to earn money for their families. Do you see them as part of the problem or potentially part of the solution.

Its a topic that we started thinking about a while back, as we wrote about EV battery supply chains, and the required transitions in mining. And then we got talking to Rob Karpati, from the?Blended Capital Group. Rob and the team are passionate about mining, especially finding practical solutions to artisanal mining. They believe that there are real opportunities to actually fix these problems, and at the same time create real impact on the ground, through investment and structural change.

Rob and I bounced ideas back and forward for a while. In the interim we started doing more digging into impact investing, and how place based investing can produce material benefits for local communities. To cut a long story short, we invited Rob to write a series of blogs for us ...the first is out today. Its a scene setter, a foundation for more detailed future blogs that will cover solutions and how they get implemented.

You can read Rob's blog here, but before you do, some facts. There are 45 million artisanal miners working in over 80 countries. If you include the families of the miners, there are 200 million plus people directly supported by artisanal scale mining (ASM), which is the equivalent of 2.5% of the global population.?According to the World Bank, there are a further 134-269 million people who sell food, equipment, clothing and shelter to the miners. The largest block of artisanal miners, an estimated 15-20M individuals, focus on gold.

ASM is a material contributor to our mined output, making up close to 20% of global cobalt mining, as well as significant copper and manganese tonnage.?There is also significant mining of precious metals and stones, including 20% of worldwide gold mining and 80% of global sapphire mining.?

Given the importance of ASM in many countries, formalisation of the sector is a mechanism for enabling sustainable development on a broader basis, while also increasing supply of minerals that are critical for the energy transition

Enough from me, why not read Rob's blog and think about how our actions can positively contribute to our critical mineral supplies, and the quality of life of countless people. Its an interesting thought as we wind down into Easter.

You can read more on this, and other sustainability finance debates,?in our blogs, which you can find here.