SITUATION ANALYSIS OF THE SMALL-SCALE GOLD ... - WWF

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essential baseline data for regulatory efforts. Regulation remains impossible as long as we do not know who we are dealing with. Secondly, the mining population is heterogeneous in terms of ethnic origin, family background, living conditions, and many other socio-cultural aspects. Some garimpeiros are transitory visitors to Suriname, with little vested interest in the country other than its gold. Others have established families, sent their children to Suriname schools, learned the local language, and are integrated in Suriname society. There are Maroon men from forest villages who work for nine months in a row in the mines, away from their wife and children, who suffer from a lack of clean water and malaria at home. Yet the Maroon mining population also includes women who come to trade for a couple of weeks out of the year. They may be sharing their meals with a Hindustani excavator operator, who has come to earn investment money for a business in town. Prior to developing interventions, policy makers should identify a target group and consult with members of this group to assess program relevance and efficiency. Last, Suriname miners are not systematically organized, for reasons discussed in an earlier <strong>WWF</strong> report 2 . It is impossible to approach miners as individuals. Miners‟ participation in workshops and other elements of participatory policy reform requires that miners form cooperatives or associations. We are not the first to observe this. To date, however, no governmental department or nongovernmental organization has made a serious effort to organize local small-scale miners. 34
Chapter IV MINING CLASSIFICATION AND ENTERPISE DEVELOPMENT We begin the chapter by discussing the challenge of defining the gold mining subsectors. It is argued that the simple dual classification scheme in the mining code of 1986 needs to be refined. The technical outfitting of enterprises is reviewed next, and options for improved mining technology are identified. Against this background, the classification scheme of Noetstaller is used and slightly modified to suggest an appropriate three or four-level classification of gold mining activities in Suriname. The organization of the various gold mining organizations is reviewed next. Five categories of mining zone organization are analyzed, ranging from large-scale foreign investment companies to occupied mining zones. The purpose of this analysis is to first, reveal the different organizational structures and how they function in the field. Understanding the various organizational schemes in the private sector is a necessary condition for the reform of the sub-sector. The table at the end of the chapter summarizes the defining features of the various organizational systems. The findings also suggest that small scale miners’ income is not enough to finance the technical innovations that are needed to increase income and reduce pollution. Ongoing technical assistance in the field is needed to improve prospecting, mining, ore processing and enterprise administration in order to upgrade SSM enterprises and make them sustainable income earners. However, a well organized SSM sub-sector is needed to provide a context within which assistance and control schemes can be successfully executed. 4.1 The challenge of defining the sub-sectors Before discussing the objectives and organization of gold mining enterprises in Suriname, it is useful to review the existing definitions that are used in the mining code and other international instruments that could be applied and adapted to the situation in Suriname. The Suriname mining code makes a distinction between mining („mijnbouw‟) and SSM („klein mijnbouw‟). The difference between the two systems has been described in more detail in Chapter II (Table 1). The Ministry of Natural Resources (NH) requires that persons or enterprises seeking mining rights have sufficient capital at their disposal, posses the technical expertise, organizational infrastructure and experience to develop the mine. Small-scale miners, on the other hand, are not required to possess substantial capital, technical and human resources. Moreover, the NH commits itself to free technical and administrative assistance if and when it is available (article 39-1-e). 35
Page 1 and 2: SITUATION ANALYSIS OF THE SMALL-SCA
Page 3 and 4: 4.6 Concession holders and miners 4
Page 5 and 6: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACT Amazone C
Page 7 and 8: PREFACE The Suriname gold sector ha
Page 9 and 10: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The World Wildlif
Page 11 and 12: Furthermore, the proposed Inter Dep
Page 13 and 14: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The consultants ap
Page 15 and 16: Chapter I INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 ou
Page 17 and 18: government with their experience in
Page 19 and 20: Zoning of mining areas. The third i
Page 21 and 22: known. The risk of water- and air-b
Page 23 and 24: 1.5 Root causes Why is it so diffic
Page 25 and 26: Box 1: The administrative presence
Page 27 and 28: NW-SE greenstone belt between the G
Page 29 and 30: of inappropriate equipment soon tra
Page 31 and 32: other goods imported from Paramarib
Page 33 and 34: their property to a foreign explora
Page 35 and 36: second informal system to the exist
Page 37 and 38: Hydraulic mining was outlawed in Ca
Page 39 and 40: Chapter III SOCIAL DIMENSIONS In th
Page 41 and 42: 3.2 The second gold rush Until the
Page 43 and 44: 3.3. Life in the mines Life in the
Page 45 and 46: In contrast to the Brazilian migran
Page 47: spouse, and jeopardizes their acces
Page 51 and 52: of its original rock structure and
Page 53 and 54: concentrate is panned with mercury.
Page 55 and 56: 6. conjunction with another excavat
Page 57 and 58: 4.3 The classification scheme of No
Page 59 and 60: capital invest in such an enterpris
Page 61 and 62: Most workers are paid a percentage
Page 63 and 64: least earn some income from mining
Page 65 and 66: Fixed costs Operator (150 gr. p. m.
Page 67 and 68: Finally, the concession holder who
Page 69 and 70: Table 7. Differences in organizatio
Page 71 and 72: government‟s policy to phase out
Page 73 and 74: Institutional: It provides guidance
Page 75 and 76: The rights of Indigenous, Maroon an
Page 77 and 78: institutions will be involved, both
Page 79 and 80: nature, mode of occurrence and quan
Page 81 and 82: into several categories, basically
Page 83 and 84: classification of sub-sectors in th
Page 85 and 86: over a period of five or more years
Page 87 and 88: To this day, however, little progre
Page 89 and 90: To issue licenses to small-scale mi
Page 91 and 92: NB is part of the Forestry Departme
Page 93 and 94: This development was anticipated by
Page 95 and 96: in the interior on a regular basis.
Page 97 and 98: community at the best of their abil
Page 99 and 100:
Help guide law drafters and law mak
Page 101 and 102:
and social laws. An intricate syste
Page 103 and 104:
Table 11. Economic importance of pl
Page 105 and 106:
and likely underestimates the real
Page 107 and 108:
7.1 Summary of the findings Chapter
Page 109 and 110:
the legalization of the activity th
Page 111 and 112:
Uncontrolled sub-sector No funds to
Page 113 and 114:
development leading to a practical
Page 115 and 116:
Hierarchical zoning of SSGM The pro
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13.2 Langatete Zone 13.3 Cottica Zo
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critical, as use of their infrastru
Page 121 and 122:
evised proposal to reflect the outc
Page 123 and 124:
13 De Vletter, D.R., and A.L 1998 t
Page 125 and 126:
32 Maatschap van Geologen en Mijnbo
Page 127:
51 World Bank 1998 Environmental As
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