ABSTRACT
The contribution of small-scale or artisanal mining to the overall mining output in the world is estimated to be 10-16%. In general, the percentage contribution with respect to industrial minerals is higher than formetallic minerals. Estimates varywidely about the number of persons involved in artisanal mining (upto 16 million). In some countries, the contribution of artisanalmining is of considerable economic significance. For instance, Peru has about 3,000 small-scale mines which produce 100% of the antimony, 90% gold, 15% tungsten, etc. of the national production (Gocht, 1980, Natural Resources and Development, v. 12, pp. 7-18). About 90% of Brazil’s gold production is attributable to artisanal mining. Capital-intensive, mechanized mining is not cost effective for the exploitation of
small deposits, even of high grade. Such a deposit is amenable to small-scale mining, particularly where the deposit occurs at or close to the surface, and where the mineral could be won by simple methods, such as hand-picking, panning, sluicing, etc. It therefore follows that artisanal mining may be a cost-effective option in the case of several economic minerals occurring in the soil. For instance, by the nature of its occurrence and its properties, opal can only be mined manually (in candle light!). Small-scale mining has several advantages: it is labor intensive, can be initiated on
any scale, with simple technology, at low capital cost, low consumption of energy, and short lead time, and without expensive imported equipment. It can also promote local industries. This, however, does not mean that small-scale mining is the panacea for the problems of the developing countries. Artisanal mining suffers from the following serious disadvantages: (i) it tends to be haphazard, since in most countries there is no systematic exploration activity to support small-scale mining; (ii) destructive exploitation by the gouging of rich pockets; (iii) low recovery rates; (iv) low labor productivity
(about 4%of highlymechanizedmines); and (v) non-extraction of valuable byproducts which are therefore irretrievably lost to the country. In future, vegetative methods of reclamation of mined land may emerge as a
significant, economically viable, and employment-generating activity. It is possible to improve the efficiency of small-scale mining, while concomitantly
reducing its deleterious consequences, by the adoption of the following innovative approaches:
1. Developing simple techniques of prospecting, which could be used by unskilled labor, e.g. use of smoky quartz as indicator of cassiterite-lepidolite pegmatites, and looking for cassiterite resistate in the soils near pegmatite, training of miners on-site about simple methods of mineral search and extraction. Using a portable X-ray fluorescence analyzer, it is possible to make a quick and
fairly accurate on-site assay of several ore metals in the material mined or to be mined by a miner. Such an assay can serve two purposes: (i) to make the miner aware of the economic value of the material already mined by him (through a knowledge of what kind of ore metals and in what concentrations occur in the material mined by him), and (ii) to advise him as to what kind of material he should be mining in order to get greater returns.
