Responsible Small Scale Mining

As has been brought to light in many of these blogs small scale mining operations tend to be exceedingly dangerous to local communities, workers and the environment. Large scale operations, while more regulated, are owned by executives with little ties to the local communities. Some of the ways in which small scale mining operations could become more responsible would be through education campaigns. Such issues as mercury poisoning, proper tunnel building techniques, prevention methods for the breathing of toxic chemicals and dust must be addressed.

According to http://www.nodirtygold.org/responsibleasm.cfm "The stronger points from all of these initiatives (No single initiative that we examined represented precautionary, comprehensive, best practice standards for all of the aspects of small-scale mining that we considered. Each of the initiatives had points for which it was closer to representing best practice, and points where it was further from best practice), in combination with the precautionary principle and known best practice, could be combined to form a composite of best practice in responsible small-scale gold mining. Such a certification system would include practices such as respecting human rights; obtaining community consent; guaranteeing revenue sharing and transparency; not operating in areas of armed conflict; respecting workers' rights and health and safety standards; not using mercury or other toxic chemicals; and not operating in protected areas, among others. Traceability and third-party verification of compliance would provide further assurance of responsible sourcing."