)
Octubre 2011
October 2011
On 17 October 2011, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and Maplecroft held the first in a series of ‘Gold Dialogues’ in the London offices of Norton Rose Group.
These are aimed at drawing together industry, civil society and policy actors to discuss issues relating to the development of ethical and traceable gold supply chains – with a focus on Large-Scale Mining (LSM) and Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM).
The first of these Gold Dialogues addressed ‘The imperative of collaboration between Artisanal/Small scale and Large Scale Mining’, with a particular focus on the following three issues:
– Issue 1: The risks and opportunities relating to the formalisation of ASM
– Issue 2: How can ASM ensure its concerns are reflected in global initiatives developed by or for large
global companies?
– Issue 3: How can the LSM sector work with responsible ASM operators to bring ethically produced gold to market?
The event presented a real opportunity to signal important concerns to leading gold companies, industry associations, peer supply chain initiatives and concerned NGO´s, regarding ARM´s objective of ensuring that artisanal and small scale miners are not further marginalised by emerging industry ethical supply chain initiatives. All participants agreed that we are entering the era of ethical minerals, and in this process, ignoring the need for formalisation and inclusion of ASM, can compromise these emerging ethical mining and supply chain initiatives.
ARM will continue to engage with the stakeholders to create innovative and collaborative approaches addressing the role of the mining and minerals sector as a whole in building fair and ethical minerals supply chains.