To reduce the health, social and environmental risks of artisanal mining.

• Identify and experiment with one or more alternative technical treatment processes for the techniques currently in use;

• Promote the adoption of a management method and an alternative technique to minimize the environmental and health risks related to ore processing.

• A baseline study on artisanal mining was carried out, which allowed, among other things, the identification of community leaders at the mining sites as well as the characterization of the main needs for miners to achieve cleaner mining activities;

• The creation of recognized artisanal mining associations;

• The rise in the artisanal miners’ awareness on the dangers associated with the misuse of chemicals such as cyanide and mercury;

• Based on the study, technical alternatives that do not require the use of mercury (i.e., centrifuges) were selected thanks to inputs from interested town halls and miner’s groups.

• A testing phase has been launched with groups of volunteer miners, and returns in terms of efficiency are positive;

           – Abandoning the use of mercury in favor of new technologies (Goldkatcha centrifuge)

           – A better gold recovery rate (70%);

           – Time saving in ore processing (10 times less);

• An evaluation of the pilots was carried out.