Deep dive on cooperative support – case studies from Inhambane, Tete and Zambezia in Mozambique

The ASM gold cooperative of Eduardo Mondlane, in Tete, is located in a dry area where it hardly rains. Collecting the water required for mineral processing involves a 6-kilometres drive to the closest river. When the project selected Eduardo Mondlane as one of four pilot sites, the infrastructure to store the water consisted of two quite small non-hermetic tanks even though the process relies on its constant use. As a consequence, the miners had to go every week to collect water at the river. This process was resource-heavy and unreliable, at the mercy of a truck breaking down, of funds being available to hire a vehicle, and of water levels in the river. Developing better water storage and recycling was identified as a work stream that would really benefit the cooperative’s efficiency.

“The introduction of the water management system was one of the most positive aspects for the cooperative action plan implementation with the Eduardo Mondlane cooperative in Chifunde”, Amilton Cesar, Formalisation officer for the province of Tete, declared as the project concluded.

Addressing the availability and operational cost of getting water were important to get the production flowing and generate sufficient income that would help the miners engage with responsible entrepreneurship.  The project aimed to contribute to a processing system that would be both more efficient and reduce the impact on the environment through less water being wasted.

To do so, the team created a storage infrastructure for water, and incorporated a closed water circuit around new gravimetric concentrating methods, where water is used to moisten the ore and help the ore goes down the sluice. Proper water management (availability and continuous flow) can contribute to improved recovery of the gold and efficiency at work.

The project engaged with the miners on the technical aspects of setting up a closed-circuit water storage and recycling system. The technical expert from the project team designed the plan for the water recycling system with two main objectives:

• Ensure the ore processing capacity would not be affected by maintenance needs (e.g. tank getting full),
• Ensure the pumped water for the processing is always clean and not full of sediments.

Based on these two considerations, a two-phase system made of three tanks was set up. After processing the ore,

1. The murky water reaches one of two side-by-side sedimentation tanks (when one is full and under maintenance, it goes to the other one),
2. The sediments deposit,
3. The water gets cleaner while progressing through the tanks,
4. The water arrives back to the first storage tank from where the water is pumped to feed the processing of the ore,
5. Repeat

Once the dimensions of the tanks were defined based on the processing capacity of the cooperative, the cooperative started digging. The initial tests were conclusive, even though some steps were still missing at the end of the intervention to make the water recycling system fully operational due to the project’s time constrains. Considering it allows for an improved storage of the water and in a significant amount, the miners will save both money and time thanks to this new infrastructure.

Technical parameters and operating costs of the water recycling system

The cooperative of Yapa, in Zambezia, extracts gemstones and industrial minerals in a forested area.

As the project started, miners wanted to increase the production, introduce mechanical tools, and set up a mining camp. All these developments can lead to significant, irreversible impacts onto the environment (deforestation, landscape, river pollution) when they aren’t carried out responsibly.

“The greatest impact of the project was the transfer of useful knowledge for the mining activity. The content was aligned with the real context of the community and gradually improved the administrative, technical and mental capacity of the miners. I believe that this shared knowledge will be transmitted from generation to generation,” Carlos Pahate, formalisation officer in the province of Zambézia, explained. In Mozambique, ASM groups that operate in a Designated Area – which is the aim of Yapa – should comply with basic environmental rules. Therefore, in addition to working with the miners to strengthen their organizational and business capabilities and to improve their technical skills, the project integrated environmental management into the formalization approach. This, through a really comprehensive approach so that the miners can get ownership of the process.

When miners operate informally (in the case of Yapa, the declaration of a Designated Area for artisanal mining is still pending), implementing environmental actions can be burdensome as they can consider it a low-benefit and risky issue because:

• Producing in an environment-friendly manner may require extra efforts, or at least be perceived as such by miners who primarily want to make a decent living from their work;
• Uncovering bad environmental practices may expose miners to increased administrative burden, financial costs and fines.

To overcome these challenges, the project team approached the environmental action plan in a participatory, progressive and comprehensive way.

The team invited government officers, both from the national ASM department and the provincial authority, to take part in the different activities. Several objectives were pursued:

• To increase miners’ awareness of the environmental impacts of mining operations and their obligation to comply with the to-be-defined good practices;
• To identify the main environmental impacts (including their frequency and impact level) and specific and realistic mitigation actions miners could implement;
• To inform sections of the Environmental Management Program to be elaborated by the provincial authority (pilot application based on a new regulation still to be approved).

How the project delivered the practical implementation:

Step 1: An introduction to the environmental approach for the miners delivered at the mining camp, including the basic concepts in relation to environmental management, detailing the four components it relates to (biodiversity of -fauna and flora-, air, rocks, water). The training showed how every human activity generates positive and negative impacts and that the key is to be aware of them and engage in a risk-mitigation strategy (taking basic actions that reduce the negative outputs and maximise the positive ones). This helped the miners gain confidence in the process and prepare them to be more engaged in the next stage.

Step 2: Identify mining-related environmental impacts. To survey the operation and gain an initial idea of the environment and potential impacts, the miners drafted a map of the area where they located the extraction and processing sites, the roads and pathways, the mining infrastructure (camp), the main elements of the environment (including forest, rivers, and residential areas) and other economic activities (crops). This helped identify the nature and locations of potential impacts. Building from here, the project team, miners and government officers, conducted a field visit to estimate the importance of each element making up the environment of the mining operation, and to identify how the latter could affect the first. Back at the mining camp, the group sorted listed possible impacts per component, rating them in a simple manner (frequency*seriousness = total impact). 

Step 3: Identify mitigation measures. After this, the participants identified some good practices the miners could implement to mitigate the main risks highlighted in the previous exercise. The miners identified washing the ore in the riverbed as a major impact. Based on their own observation, over time, fish have disappeared  and it was sometimes  impossible to wash clothes or get water for cooking due to high levels of sediments. To reduce this impact, they committed to improve the mineral selection process so to not carry as much ore to the riverbed, and thus reduce the turbidity of the water. The project suggested washing the ore in a separate processing plant fuelled by the water channelled from the river. A sedimentation tank downstream would ensure that the water that goes back to the river is clean. Following this reflection, the project’s technical expert worked with the miners to outline a system that could suit their needs. The project’s timeframe did not allow for the construction, but the miners are convinced this investment would be useful and promised to work on building it.

Beyond these concrete steps towards identifying an action plan, thanks to a comprehensive and participatory methodology, the miners are now aware of the environmental challenges, own the approach, and are better prepared to integrate all of this into their formalization process. In the own words of Sr Brito, president of the Yapa cooperative: “By using games, questions, maps, the project team raised awareness among cooperative members of the ways the environment is affected and how we can stop causing additional damage, how we can help the environment and avoid the vegetation and the water to be ruined”.

While most of the actions are still to be implemented, the participation of the provincial authority in these activities as well as the delivery of a practical implementation sheet, should facilitate further tailored engagement from the government with the miners to reduce the environmental impacts. Learnings from the Yapa cooperative can then be rolled out to other ASM cooperatives.