Artisanal and small scale mining baseline survey report
The Ministry of Energy and Minerals (MEM) of Tanzania signed a contract with Pact Institute for Preparation of an Operational Manual and Coordination of Small-scale Grants Scheme Phase II for Artisanal and Small-scale Miners (ASM). Pact was required to conduct a baseline survey in three mining blocks of Tanzania namely Chunya, Geita and Tarime focusing on current production statistics, average individual and household incomes of miners, and valuation of mining assets.
This baseline survey employed mixed methods in its design incorporating both qualitative as well as quantitative methods using questionnaires for mining households, miners, mine operators and owners and focus groups discussions with miners. The study identified a control group of non-mining households living around the mining sites in order to establish a comparison point for evaluation purpose.
The baseline survey highlighted that mine workers have low levels of education with women having lower mean level of education than men. The majority of miners reported being taught mining by their peers within the mining site, indicating a system of informal apprenticeship and training in artisanal and small scale mining that can be explored and improved for skills building in the artisanal mining sector. Mining was the sole source of livelihood for 50% of miners where 24.4% of all miners have been mining in the same mining site for 5–10 years indicating some stability in the area contrary to the migratory mining phenomenon seen during a ‘gold rush’. 1.8% of miners were children (below 18 years) though this is related to the sampling process which specifically identified adult respondents. The clandestine nature of child labor under the Tanzania Employment and Labor relations Act (2004) which prohibits employment of children in hazardous work means that a rigorous/quantitative analysis of child labor in mining is extremely difficult to do.
Additional Info
- Author(s)
- G Protace
- Publication Year
- 2013
- Language
- English
- Publishing Institution Webpage
- https://www.pactworld.org/
- Data Source Classification
- Program Report
- Research Type
- Both
- Research Methodology
- Primary - INTERVIEW, Secondary - PREVIOUS RESEARCH, Secondary - OFFICIAL STATISTICS
- Thematic Tags
- Social, Child Labor, Gender, Technological, Education and Training
- Minerals
- Gold
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Country
- Tanzania
- Last Updated
- October 6, 2019