News

ARM hosted the regional workshop in the city of Chala, Peru, where the formalization requirements were discussed; The different members of the supply chain collaborated in order to expedite the marketing and exporting processes, and access loans. Miners also exchanged stories about their experiences during the internship at the MACDESA mining organization.

ARM, represented by Patrick Schein, member of the Board of Directors of ARM, participated in different sessions where he had the opportunity to highlight the potential of artisanal and small-scale mining (MAPE) and highlight its role as a low carbon emitter, a great generator of rural employment, a foreign exchange contributor, and a contributor to indirect taxes.

The three main purposes for initiating CRAFT Version 2 are to 1) follow standards setting best practice in support of CRAFT’s credibility and legitimacy as a tool, 2) expand the scope of CRAFT to maximize its utility to the artisanal minerals sector and its constituencies, and 3) enable progressive improvement and integrate lessons learned from implementing version 1.

On June 14 2019, we organized a workshop on the OECD’s Due Diligence Guide in Popayan, Cauca, Colombia, with the aim of helping the department’s public entities, as well as the mining organizations that take part in the extraction of gold to become familiar with the concept of Due Diligence.

The process for the expansion of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) board meeting was approved in the face-to-face meeting from November 07 to 10, 2018, with a first cycle starting in December 2018 and ending in 2019.

The Alliance for Responsible Mining’s team (ARM) attended the 13th Forum on responsible supply chains for minerals of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which took place in Paris, France, on April 23-26.

The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the impact of the new regulation on the responsible sourcing of the 3T and gold minerals and its supporting measures from the outlook of the European civil society and representatives from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Colombia.

Since November 2017, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), along with the funding from the Ensemble Foundation, the Colorado School of Mines and the Ford Foundation, have been developing a global project to promote good mining practices in the Puno region.

The goal of the event was to assist small mining producers in employing clean technologies to eradicate the use of mercury in mining, as well as for miners to know and approach the various state agencies involved in mining.

From the 13th to the 15th of March various activities took place as the starting point of the new stage of the project Somos Tesoro.

On February 27, the skills workshop on the OECD Diligence Due Diligence Guide was held in Medellin, Colombia, in order to understand the context, objectives and recommendations, as well as to analyze in depth the necessary steps for its implementation.

For the Alliance for Responsible Mining, 2018 ended with some encouraging news, such as the increase from 8 to 11 artisanal and small-scale mining organizations certified under the Fairmined Standard (in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Mongolia), and the growth in the volume of Fairmined certified gold in relation to the previous year.

On 7 January 2019, a special meeting took place in Vienna, Austria. People from all over Europe gathered to talk about one of the most exciting topics in the gold sector: Fairmined.

The first of January, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) officially started a project in Burkina Faso. This one will run for three years and it is financed by the European Union (EU). It is the first large project that ARM implements in West Africa since the one financed by the UNIDO. In addition, the project is the first one signed from ARM Europe.

On December 12 and 13 ARM held an event that focused on the outlook of women miners on environmentally-oriented management, peacebuilding, and their situation within the artisanal and small-scale mining sector (ASM), in collaboration with UN Women and UN Environment.

In January, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) releases its new Fairmined Connect virtual platform to offer a better user experience to all people willing to connect with the Fairmined Standard. This platform will replace E-Cert, which has been in use since 2015.

The Cauca-Nariño Regional Workshop was held on December 4 and 5 in Popayán, Cauca, Colombia, and was attended by more than 50 people, including institutions; artisanal and small-scale miners from Cauca, Nariño, Antioquia, Huila and Boyacá; scholars; civil society organizations such as Foro por Colombia; and members of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) team.

The Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) foundation opened an association in Europe composed by the 8 members of the board of directors of the foundation. As a result, the “Association Alliance pour une Mine Responsable – Europe” (ARM Europe), based in France, is now a reality.