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Article: Artisanal and small-scale miners. (Industry Views).(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Mining Magazine
- Article date:
- January 1, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Mining Communications, Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In many parts of the world, artisanal or small-scale mining (ASM) activities are at least as important as large-scale mining activities. The numbers of people employed are actually considerably greater than in large companies. An estimated 13 million people - a large percentage of whom are women and children - are artisanal and small-scale miners operating mainly in developing countries. The number of small-scale miners and their dependents could be up to 80-100 million people.
Consideration of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector forms an important part of the Global Mining Intitiative's Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project ...