Helen Clark on tackling crime and corruption in ASM gold mining

At the Chatham House and World Gold Council event on Addressing Illegal Gold Mining: International Policy Priorities, EITI Board Chair Rt Hon. Helen Clark spoke on the role of transparency in artisanal and small-scale gold mining and the need for international collaboration to tackle corruption, crime and conflict.

Thank you for the invitation to contribute to today’s discussion on this important topic, and thank you also to Rt Hon. Dominic Raab and to David Tait and his team at the World Gold Council for their work on the Silence is Golden report.

Let me begin with some comments on the artisanal and small-scale mining sector.

First, data on the artisanal and small-scale mining sector is challenging to collect. Best estimates are that there are fifteen to twenty million people engaged in it globally, and that it may be the second largest source of rural livelihoods in Africa.

Second, up to one-fifth of newly-mined gold is now estimated to be produced by artisanal and small-scale miners, an increase of four per cent from the 1990s.

Set against a backdrop of sustained gold price increases over the last two years in particular, it is clear that artisanal and small-scale gold mining is an important source of income around the world. Therefore, it should be able to make a meaningful economic contribution in the communities involved in it.

Yet, sadly, the reality for those involved in ASM can be very different with the activities of artisanal mine workers rarely leading to prosperity. The sector is more likely to be associated with environmental degradation, the use of mercury, child labour, and poor – even non-existent – health and safety controls.

There is also evidence of a growing contribution of illegal mining to international crime, corruption, and conflict. The United States Government, for example, has drawn attention to the role of illegally and artisanally-mined gold in funding conflict in the Great Lakes region.

This latest report from the World Gold Council is seeking to tackle the challenging ASM landscape by offering ways forward for more international collaboration to fight corruption, terrorism, and international crime – that is, to fight those activities which inevitably result in the diversion of revenue away from those who should benefit from the activities.

While regulation is needed to address the environmental, health, and safety impacts of ASM, international action is essential to respond to the global networks which are driving corruption, terrorism, and criminal activity.

The development of a framework for collective action by the World Gold Council is a very welcome step, complementing other initiatives.

There is so much potential for collaboration on this matter with the EITI, which I chair. Reporting pursuant to the updated 2023 EITI Standard can help provide new data from more than fifty countries, including many with large ASM sectors. Those include Burkina Faso, Colombia, DRC, Ghana, Indonesia, and Mali.

The EITI therefore looks forward to working with international stakeholders, including the World Gold Council, to understand how to accelerate data disclosures which can inform good solutions to the challenges ASM faces. It is important that those working in the ASM sector, often among the most vulnerable, can aspire to work in more predictable and safe environments, and get greater benefit from their labour and from the resources they are extracting.

Addressing the funding of crime, terrorism, and conflict is so vital to promoting this objective, and to laying the foundations for a more stable geopolitical and geoeconomic environment for all.