IIED shines a light on small-scale mining
5 March 2013
Small-scale and artisanal mining — a sector that governments and development agencies often see as only as a problem — could be a source of sustainable livelihoods for millions of marginalised people, say researchers at the International Institute for Environment and Development.
Source: International Institute for Environment and Development
From the only mine in the world.
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Haru Mutasa
Haru Mutasa is a South Africa-based correspondent for Al Jazeera English.
Everytime I have asked for permission to visit Marange as a journalist, it has always been a “no”.
But despite the secrecy, business must go on and all the big names in the diamond industry are in the resort town of Victoria Falls.
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Supporters say Marlin mine creates jobs, but critics see it as exploitative and environmentally unsound.
David Mercer Last Modified: 25 Oct 2012 10:36
San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala – Viewed from a thousand feet up, the Marlin mine resembles a scar cut deep across the Guatemalan countryside. On both sides of a sinuous road that winds down a mountainside, the patchwork of forest and field has been scraped and blasted away to expose the yellow-white rock that gives the land here incredible value.
But the tiny flecks of gold that have turned this into one of the region’s most profitable mines have also made it a source of conflict and controversy.
Fifty-eight year old Diadora Hernandez’s story illustrates the dangerous divisions that have emerged since the mine started operations in 2005.
“My neighbors don’t want to see me,” said the diminutive grandmother one afternoon, sitting on a tree stump outside the small, dirt-floored house a few hundred meters from the mine. “They hate me because I won’t sell my land to the mine. But my grandmother left me this land – it’s mine and I don’t want to sell it.”
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