Gold Mining Artisanal (Short Form)
Introduction
Mining is probably one of the last industries that you would expect in a “Pubic Benefit” project, but please read on. This project will help well over 100 million people in third world and emerging countries. In many countries, the gold mining industry is dominated by large corporations. However, although these large corporate players dominate the market producing over 85% of the world’s gold supply, they only employ 10% of the total working in the gold mining field. 15% of the gold is mined by the remaining 90% of the people employed in mining the world’s gold.
These 100 million people are artisanal miners or subsistence miners. They rely on their rudimentary, tedious, dangerous, mining operations for the food and shelter. It is estimated by the UN that as many as 5 million women and children are participants in these operations
Among the hardships in their daily labors, they are frequently physically harmed by the toxic chemicals, predominantly mercury (Hg) that is utilized, most often illegally, in the processing of the ores, which is responsible for the 50% of the atmospheric entrainment and water pollution with that dangerous heavy metal.
When our project is completed, the planet’s Hg pollution will be reduced by 50%, Hg poisoning of families as a result of exposure to the process will be eliminated, villages and entrepreneurs will be raised to unprecedented prosperity, governments will be fiscally empowered to assist their constituents, compliance costs will drop, black markets which finance terrorists, drug dealers, human traffickers will be greatly reduced, and coolest of all, when you buy a new solid gold Rolex ® wristwatch or, more likely, a set of gold plated Monster ® HMDI wires, you will probably be able to find out exactly where and when the gold that went into that product was mined and perhaps every by whom.
Admittedly, the preceding paragraph is insanely and unrealistically ambitious. However, this project is going to make a lot of poor people’s lives better and more healthful, it will improve their leader’s competence in their governance, and will reduce mercurial toxins for all of us.
So please read on, and help.
Overview
In recent years, Artisanal Gold Mining (AGM) has accounted for approximately 12% of all the gold produced in the world involving around 16 million miners and more than 150 million people indirectly in more than 70 developing countries. This is a result of lack of employment in rural areas associated with the increase of gold price by more than 600% over the past decade. As a consequence, AGM is today the largest consumers of mercury releasing almost 1,500 tons of mercury to the air and water courses. Artisanal mining, in particular gold mining, is the main social and environmental problem of the mining sector. Different approaches to intervening in artisanal gold mining communities are taken by different groups, governments, and organizations around the world to reduce pollution and to protect the miners and their families. Some believe legislation is the key while others think that introducing new technologies are the best solution.
For example, in Congo 90% of the people employed in the gold mining industry are artisanal gold miners however, they only account for 15% of the gold production. The rest is done by larger companies and government regulated industries.
In the Congo alone, there are estimated to be 10 to 15 million artisanal gold miners and it is also estimated that these miners include 4-5 million women and children.
These millions of miners are subsistence miners. They depend on the proceeds from their mining to provide the necessities for themselves and their families. Their life is difficult
Our plan is to improve the lives, health and safety of these miners and their families.
The plan involves the application on blockchain technology to create an immutable, distributed audit trail of all gold mining activities in, initially, three countries.
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The Problem
- The artisanal gold miners have several serious problems
- First, gold mining is dangerous
- The solution is not to outlaw artisanal mining or to make it more difficult for subsistence miners to make a living.
- Governments and the media have a history of condemnation and demonization of artisanal gold mining without really properly understanding the sector without offering solutions. However, artisanal gold mining is now universally recognized by international agencies like the UN as a development opportunity and a huge source of rural employment and wealth generation. The solution is not to deprive the men and women from their livelihood but to improve and streamline their processes by expanding their opportunity and entrepreneurship.
- Governments and many social justice advocates have often tried to interfere in such economies believing that by their good intentions they are helping save poor families when in reality their actions hinder or even deprive them of their occupations and consequently their sustenance.
How Our Plan Will Change This
The Blockchain, for instance, offers tremendous opportunities to liberate the world’s economically and financially disadvantaged populations in a number of ways:
- Safety – Certain procedures in the gold mining precess is dangerous to the miners and their families, mainly through the utilization of mercury to form an amalgam of mercury and gold, after which the mercury is evaporated off. Mercury is an effective neurotoxin and prominent pollutant of air and water. The process will offer more efficient alternatives to the use of mercury.
- Payment transmission – M-PESA services have been hugely successful on the African continent, providing simplified mobile payment services between its participants. BlockChain technology can take this further by providing a peer to peer payment system, whereby the friction costs of transfer are virtually nil and the transactions are evidenced on the BlockChain providing transparency for all parties involved.
- Land Title – BlockChain can provide evidence of rights to land title and property. A problem acute in many parts of the Third World, where properties are seized by the authorities and criminal gangs. There is little recourse to the owners as corrupt local councils destroy the evidence that is needed to prove entitlement.
- Microloans – Many in the Third World are subjected to the countries high interest rates due to government economic mismanagement, making it impossible for many to get credit or loans for business ventures for economic sustainability. Peer to peer microloans provide speed of transmission, as well as linking the success of the business to the ability to draw down more funds through the use of automated BlockChain contracts. It also enables the recipient to begin to build a credit history through payments which is evidenced on the BlockChain. This use case is compelling; by lifting business activity and thereby contributing to raising a countries GDP.
- Equipment Financing – Automating the process will allow the miners to increase their production and not only increase their self sufficiency but achieve a level of profitability through expansion which will enable additional employment opportunities and trickle down benefits to the entire community.
Independence not Oppression
This plan has as its objective the improvement of the lives of as much as 100 million people, mainly in third world countries, to gain independence, self-support and freedom. Instead of our more-advanced countries and the academic social justice zealots who dictate from the position of superiority what the third world people need, we propose to give them the opportunity to make these decisions themselves and to provide them with the means to a safe path to prosperity and to allow them to control their destinies.
The artisanal gold-mining industry has a unique characteristic that sets it apart from most other industries in it relation with the artisanal entrepreneur miner.
In most industries, as in agriculture the producers only receive a small amount of the final retail price. For example, the banana cooperatives “receive about a dollar for 18 kilos of bananas, less than 20%. On the other hand, artisanal miners earn a minimum of 70% to 80% of the international price. This is unheard of in other goods.”[i] For this reason alone, the artisanal gold industry is opportune for the application of a capitalistic-entrepreneurship focus, which is also unique in the social improvement applications.
Our approach is presenting the miners with opportunity not with a gratutity.
Methodology
There are many instances of attempts by environmental groups and social justice agencies both public and private who attempt to position themselves into a perceived problem with a viewpoint from either the first world or academia.
Most of the time these efforts are productive, but often they cause more harm than good, and their efforts, in the end, produce a negative impact on those that they are attempting to help.
Out approach is quite different. We carefully examine the infrastructure of the established methods, procedures and protocols. We want to be certain that the application of our initiatives work as without disturbing the basic economic framework
Why We Need to Do This
South Sudanese pan for gold in Nanakanak, in the eastern part of the impoverished country. Tens of thousands of informal miners are looking for gold, and the government is trying to attract international mining companies to carry out the search on an industrial scale.
- Mercury Poisoning
- Poverty
- Gold Reserves are Not Increasing
- another
We Have the Support of Several Governments
Many of the governments with large numbers of subsistence artisanal miners are not wealthy, many exit in the Third World and some are Emerging Countries. This is part of the problem, if the governments were able, they would probably have already addressed many of the issues and some would have been resolved. However, governments with limited resources can only.
Benefits to the National Government
- Decreased enforcement costs
- Increased collection and recovery of fees and taxes
- Ability to offer health benefits and business capital to small miners without any capital outlay
- Ability to offer funding for mining equipment to enhance, streamline and expand the miners operations, increasing production and therefore tax revenues
Benefits to Miners
- Increased production due to establishment of efficiencies into the exploration and production process
- Increased protection to familial claims due to the blockchain’s ability to memorialize the miner’s claims and enforcement of property rights.
- Health benefits resulting from free screening for occupational-related illnesses and disorders.
- Microloans
- Reduced prices on equipment and financing options
- Increased revenue and entrepreneurship opportunities resulting from creative and realistic business expansion
Benefits to You (Our Investors)
- These benefits are not confined to investors but are shared by everyone on the planet
- Reduction of elemental and combatant mercury (Hg) in the atmosphere
- Reduction of number of impoverished persons in the mining areas and ancillary problems and issues that accompany concentrated poverty
- The sponsors of this project have established a business in two South American countries and have established a presence in those countries and have developed relationships with artisanal miners, mining collectives, arbitragers, vaults, transportation agencies, retailers of mining equipment, environmental agencies, more, more, another one, and very importantly the governmental agencies commissioned with the regulation of these activities (the “Regulators”).
- We will be giving incentives for the following contributions from Individuals[ii]
- $100 – A little hunk of gold
- $500 – A little bigger hunk of gold
- $2,500 – A hunk of gold and a picture of the miner framed
The Project (Phase I)
- Agreements with three governments for starters
- Support from government
- Buy-in to overall goals and methods
- Development of blockchain for
- Lifecycle tracking
- From extraction to end user
How the Project Will Become Self Sufficient
The project will require approximately $100 million to complete, at which time it will become self-sufficient. The Company will change a fee for each transaction. These fees will be borne by the national government and will be offset completely by the decreased compliance costs and increased tax and fee revenue.
Most of the miners already comply with the tax regulations as well as all compliance costs. The unlicensed miners will find that tit is significantly more difficult to process their ores illegally as the blockchain will form a immutable, distributed audit trail which will provide obstacles for them to monetize their finds. The unlicensed miners will find that the cost of noncompliance will be greater than compliance costs in consideration of the benefits of becoming compliant and gaining the benefits that come along with this new paradigm.
Diagram of the gold mining process
Needs to be added 
Call to Action
Some Image Addresses
http://ulula.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ASM-Blog-September-15.jpg
http://www.aga-reports.com/11/sustainability-report/priorities-and-progress/artisanal-mining
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pactworld/3674752839
[i] http://goldprocessing.blogspot.com/2017/01/artisanal-gold-mining-problems.html
[ii] The incentives will be distributed at the conclusion of the first phase of the project and will be contingent on competing our financing goals as well as subsequent fundraising