Abstract
The history of artisanal and small-scale mining is riddled with injustices ranging from tax avoidance to land grabs, pollution, deforestation, adverse impact on local communities and destruction of the world’s carbon sinks. The benefits and adverse impacts associated with artisanal and small-scale mining are of global significance; often involving elements of technological, economic, environmental, health and safety, social, and governmental and political concerns. The exacerbated demand for metals used for low-carbon technologies as a result of climate change mitigation necessitates an intervention against the grave dangers associated with small-scale mining activities. Unfortunately, many governments do not attempt to control these activities, which are either outside their regulatory framework, or they lack the capacity to monitor or control these activities. This chapter examines the vital role of the artisanal and small-scale mining industry and the imminent relevance of energy justice application to this growing and unrecognised industry. It highlights how energy justice promotes the rights protection of artisanal and small-scale miners and communities, the redistribution of benefits, and environmental protection. Consequently, a social contract can be implemented to attain transformative change in the industry and ensure global well-being, hence, a just transition to a carbon-free economy.
You have full access to this open access chapter, Download chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
1 Introduction
With the prioritisation of the global energy transition, countries are investing in increased amounts of raw materials to decarbonise the energy sector, especially with the manufacture of green technologies, leading to the increased supply of critical materials like nickel, cobalt, lithium, and manganese.Footnote 1 Therefore, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) plays a vital role, as it is a significant contributor to the production of these minerals. According to the World Bank, ASM produces approximately 24% of the global cobalt used in electric vehicle batteries and 25% of tinFootnote 2 However, there is limited data on ASM, lacking the attention necessary to improve the conditions of artisanal miners and communities.Footnote 3 More specifically, the Democratic Republic of Congo has significant ASM contributing as much as 40% of the nation’s total cobalt contribution, employing more than 200,000 copper-cobalt miners.Footnote 4 Moreso, Zimbabwe has some of the world’s largest reserves of lithium deployed by both ASM and Large-Scale Miners (LSM).Footnote 5 Despite this, labour-intensive sector is largely unregulated, dangerous, and riddled with injustices like poverty, lack of wealth redistribution, child labour, land grab, and inaccessibility to lands,Footnote 6 necessitating recourse to energy justice.
2 Energy Justice and Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining
Energy justice aims to improve the world based on the five vital tenets of justice—procedural, distribution, recognition, restorative, and cosmopolitan justice, with a conscious application of human rights protection principles across the energy cycle.Footnote 7 Injustices in ASM cut across the justice tenets of (a) distribution, that is, the fair allocation of social resources from the energy sectorFootnote 8; (b) procedural entailing focus on the legal process, compliance with due processes in addressing energy injustices, and policy-makingFootnote 9; (c) recognition necessitating the acknowledgement of the needs of various groups like local or indigenous communities impacted by energy activitiesFootnote 10; (d) restorative which requires the rectification of any injustices or damages resulting from energy activities of extraction, production, or operationFootnote 11; and (e) cosmopolitan ensures that all plans and policies consider international dimensions because of the global effect of all energy activities.Footnote 12
Considering these, many countries with significant ASM activities (e.g. Congo—Cobalt) lack the opportunity to create more revenue through the refining of their resources or application to the development of its green mobility; instead, the mining communities suffer unstable and unsafe energy access,Footnote 13 death, starvation, and homelessness. Equally, there is little or no recognition for children and women who populate the cobalt mines because of the need to support themselves in the absence of schools and employment.Footnote 14 Hence, defeating the essence of recognition justice to provide attention to socially deprived groups through institutionalising a broader standpoint on who can be disadvantaged by the logic of the energy systems.Footnote 15
Furthermore, ASM suffers from inadequate regulation, because very few governments have ASM policiesFootnote 16 where small-scale miners can be awarded a small-scale mining contract (Philippines) or artisanal mining permits (Indonesia).Footnote 17 In contrast other governments either do not regulate ASM or marginalise small-scale miners. For example, the recent Zimbabwean OrderFootnote 18 places a ban on the export of raw lithium ores.Footnote 19 As much as this is regarded as a step in the right direction, it is a targeted restriction on ASM and a denial of the livelihood of many small-scale communities. There needs to be a robust regulatory/policy reformation by governments with large ASM sectors to ensure the maximisation of the benefits of ASM to address the social, environmental, and climate needs of society.Footnote 20 Thus, energy justice application promotes the protection of the rights of ASM miners/communities, the redistribution of benefits, and environmental protection. With tools such as licences to operate and social contracts, special land areas can be designated for ASM; miners will be educated and guided through streamlined licensing processes; and there is an effective implementation of stakeholder dialogue and partnership with LSMs and administrative governments to facilitate the subsistence of mining communities. A social contract ensures that the obligations of a sustainable and just ASM sector are borne by the miners, the governments, and the partnering companies or LSMs; providing some assurance of environmental protection, maintenance of quality of life, and preservation of livelihood.Footnote 21
3 Challenges Affecting the Implementation of Energy Justice
Like any other sector, there are challenges that hinder the transformation of energy injustice in the ASM sector, including but not limited to:
-
Environmental impact of ASM: ASM has a reputation for negative social and environmental impact resulting from landslides, and deforestation leading to the extinction of flora and fauna.Footnote 22 This is because there is a lack of regulatory provisions on environmental obligations for ASM activities, licensing, and no technical support or awareness to build the capacity of miners for rehabilitation. Thus, abandoned pits lead to accidents, and toxic chemicals contaminate water sources and air without any remedy options.Footnote 23
-
Bureaucratic and complicated licensing processes: In a bid to formalise the ASM sector, some processes for permit grants are too complex for the miners. Moreso, miners will only formalise and register their operation if there is some benefit to doing so.Footnote 24
-
Lack of Fair market access: ASM has poor access to markets, finance, and support services, especially for export.Footnote 25 This was emphasised in the recent United Nations International Resource Panel reports on Minerals Resource Governance, where private sectors and governments were encouraged to implement transparent practices across supply chains to integrate ASM.Footnote 26
-
Conflict financing: In some situations, ASM activities and miners are controlled by armed groups who use the resources extracted for financing conflicts and insurrection with the government or LSM operators in any case of land disputes and resource access.Footnote 27
4 Conclusion
No doubt these challenges may hinder the formalisation of the ASM sector and the involvement of miners through social contracts. However, the implementation of a social contract in this sector will not only protect the rights and well-being of miners but will deliver a just transition to a low-carbon economy. ASM will continue to play a vital role in the future of cobalt and lithium supply with the growing demand for the automotive sector,Footnote 28 and encapsulates the mineral enigma at the base of the green technology revolution as the world decarbonises.Footnote 29 According to Collegium Ramazzini at the UN COP 26 meeting, there is an urgent need for the mitigation of the neglected hazards and grave dangers of ASM to meet global demands for minerals, and that involves all tiers of governments, stakeholders, and mineral customers.Footnote 30
Notes
- 1.
Raphael Deberdt, Philippe Le Billon, (2023) ‘Green transition mineral supply risks: Comparing artisanal and deep-sea cobalt mining during the climate crisis’, The Extractive Industries and Society, Volume 14, 101232, ISSN 2214-790X, available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2023.101232.
- 2.
Demetrios Papathanasiou, Kurt MacLeod, (2021) ‘To achieve decent work, we must improve the health and safety of “hidden” artisanal miners’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, available at https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/opinion/2021/10/19/opinion-to-achieve-decent-work-we-must-improve-the-health-and-safety-of-hidden-artisanal-miners [Accessed May 3, 2023].
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Trafigura, (2022) ‘Accelerating transition: The case for formalising artisanal and small-scale mined cobalt in the DRC’ whitepaper, available at https://www.trafigura.com/media/3403/2022_trafigura_accelerating_transition_the_case_for_formalising_asm_cobalt_in_the_drc_whitepaper.pdf.
- 5.
Reuters, (2022) ‘Zimbabwe bans raw lithium exports to curb artisanal mining’, available at https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/zimbabwe-bans-raw-lithium-exports-curb-artisanal-mining-2022-12-21/ [Accessed May 3, 2021].
- 6.
Raphael Deberdt, Philippe Le Billon, (2023) ‘Green transition mineral supply risks: Comparing artisanal and deep-sea cobalt mining during the climate crisis’, The Extractive Industries and Society, Volume 14, 101232, ISSN 2214-790X, available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2023.101232.
- 7.
Raphael J. Heffron, (2021) The challenge for energy justice: Correcting human rights abuses (Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-3-030-80097-0 (eBook), available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80097-0), P. 3.
- 8.
P. Krütli, K. Törnblom, I. Wallimann-Helmer and M. Stauffacher, (2015) ‘The ethics of nuclear energy. Risk, justice, and democracy in the post-Fukushima era’, Cambridge University Press, P. 199.
- 9.
Benjamin K. Sovacool, Michael H. Dworkin, (2015) ‘Energy justice: Conceptual insights and practical applications,’ Applied Energy, 142, 435–444.
- 10.
Maciej M. Sokołowski, Raphael J. Heffron, (2022) ‘Defining and conceptualising energy policy failure: The when, where, why, and how,’ Energy Policy, Volume 161, 112745.
- 11.
M. Hazrati, R.J. Heffron, (2021) ‘Conceptualising restorative justice in the energy transition: Changing the perspectives of fossil fuels,’ Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 78, 102115.
- 12.
Raphael J. Heffron, (2020) ‘The role of justice in developing critical minerals,’ The Extractive Industries and Society, Volume 7, 855–863, 859.
- 13.
Wörmann, C. (2022) ‘Global energy justice: The case of cobalt,’ Institute fur Afrikastudien, available at https://home.uni-leipzig.de/~afrikastudien/2022/02/17/global-energy-justice-the-case-of-cobalt/ [Accessed May 5, 2023].
- 14.
Benjamin K. Sovacool, Andrew Hook, Mari Martiskainen, Andrea Brock, Bruno Turnheim, (2020), ‘The decarbonisation divide: Contextualising landscapes of low-carbon exploitation and toxicity in Africa’, Global Environmental Change, Volume 60, 102028, ISSN 0959-3780, available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.102028.
- 15.
Maciej M. Sokołowski, Raphael J. Heffron, (2022) ‘Defining and conceptualising energy policy failure: The when, where, why, and how,’ Energy Policy, Volume 161, 112745.
- 16.
The Republic of the Philippines, Congress of the Philippines Metro Manila, Eight Congress Republic Act No. 7076, An Act Creating a People’s Small-Scale Mining Program and for other Purposes, Small-Scale Mining Act (RA 7076).
- 17.
Indah Dwi Qurbani, Raphael J. Heffron, Arrial Thoriq Setyo Rifano, (2021), ‘Justice and critical mineral development in Indonesia and across ASEAN’, The Extractive Industries and Society, Volume 8, Issue 1, 355–362, ISSN 2214-790X, available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2020.11.017; In Indonesia, individuals or local communities are granted artisanal mining permits under the Article 67 of the Amendment Law No. 3/2020 of the mineral and Coal Mining Law.
- 18.
Statutory Instrument 213 of 2022. [CAP. 21:05] Base Minerals Export Control (Lithium Bearing Ores and Unbeneficiated Lithium) Order, 2022, otherwise known as the Base Minerals Export Control (Unbeneficiated Lithium Bearing Ores) Order, 2022.
- 19.
Art 4, Statutory Instrument 213 of 2022. [CAP. 21:05] Base Minerals Export Control (Lithium Bearing Ores and Unbeneficiated Lithium) Order, 2022. A violation of the provision is punishable by a 3× fine of the value of the intended mineral export or imprisonment for 2 years.
- 20.
Tony Corbett, Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh, Anthony Regan, (2017), ‘Designated areas’ and the regulation of artisanal and small-scale mining, Land Use Policy, Volume 68, 393–401, ISSN 0264-8377, available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.08.004.
- 21.
Raphael J. Heffron, Louis De Fontenelle, Chioma Basil, Inigo Del Guayo Castiella, Sufyan Droubi, Mohammad Hazrati, Halima I. Hussein, Diane Kraal, Darren McCauley, Alicia Phillips, Emmanuelle Santoire & Xavier Arnauld de Sartre (2023), ‘Pathways of scholarship for energy justice and the social contract’, Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law, Volume 41, Issue 2, 211–232, available at https://doi.org/10.1080/02646811.2023.2190689.
- 22.
Malavika Vyawahare, Will clean-energy minerals provoke a shift in how mining is done in Africa? March 30, 2023, available at https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/will-clean-energy-minerals-provoke-a-shift-in-how-mining-is-done-in-africa/ [Accessed May 4, 2023].
- 23.
World Bank. 2020, 2020 State of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, http://www.delvedatabase.org/2020report.
- 24.
The International Institute of Environment and Development, The Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development Project MMSD, ‘Artisanal and Small-scale Mining’, Chapter 13, available at https://www.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/G00905.pdf.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
European Commission, Social Dimension of Mining (Raw Materials Information System RMIS, Research and Innovation), available at https://rmis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/employment-ebfea3 [Accessed May 4, 2023].
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
World Bank. 2020, 2020 State of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, http://www.delvedatabase.org/2020report.
- 29.
Andy Home, (2021), ‘Column: Cobalt, Congo and a mass artisanal mining experiment’, Reuter Energy, available at https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/cobalt-congo-mass-artisanal-mining-experiment-andy-home-2021-05-13/ [Accessed May 4, 2023].
- 30.
Landrigan, P., Bose-O’Reilly, S., Elbel, J. et al. (2022), ‘Reducing disease and death from Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM)—The urgent need for responsible mining in the context of growing global demand for minerals and metals for climate change mitigation’. Environmental Health, Volume 21, 78, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-022-00877-5.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Basil, C.V. (2024). Energy Justice Concerns of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Amidst Energy Transition. In: Heffron, R.J., de Fontenelle, L. (eds) The Power of Energy Justice & the Social Contract. Just Transitions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46282-5_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46282-5_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-46281-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-46282-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)