Alluvial Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in A River Stream—Rutsiro Case Study (Rwanda)

Abstract

Artisanal and small-scale mining is a significant economic sector in Rwanda. Mining activities often use a watercourse, in which secondary extraction takes place and minerals are washed. Mining thus greatly affects the geomorphological conditions in the area. The aim of this paper is a digest of environmental impacts of alluvial artisanal and small-scale mining with a focus on anthropogenic influences on topography with regard to the methods used in raw material mining. The author draws on a case study from the mining site of Rutsiro district in Rwanda. Main findings of alluvial artisanal mining in a riverscape are changes in landscape structure, deforestation, intensification of geomorphological processes, new relief shapes (suffosion depressions, check dams, gravel benches, anthropogenic channels) and hydrological river regime, chemical pollution of soil and watercourses. Artisanal and small-scale mining may lead to a significant change and acceleration of fluvial processes. This paper covers a broad understanding of environmental impacts of alluvial artisanal and small-scale mining with a focus on anthropogenic influencing.

Time-Series Assessment of Camp-Type Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Sectors with Large Influxes of Miners Using LANDSAT Imagery

“…The ASGM sector can be categorized into two types: the 'travel-type', in which miners commute from their local residences to mining sites, and the 'camp-type', in which miners live and conduct their mining activities at mining camps. Recent research has focused mainly on the environmental and human health effects of mercury pollution caused by the travel-type ASGM sites spread over a large number of areas [2,8,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29], largely employing the alluvial mining method. Although camp-type ASGM sites have also been studied [30], they have only been recorded as points on maps, and there has been no quantitative analysis of the changes in the camp-type mining sector over time.…”

Save the giants: demand beyond production capacity of tantalum raw materials

“…Though the global tantalum reserves are more than enough and estimated to be sufficient probably in the coming 500 years (Mancheri et al 2018 ), the struggles to get enough production come one after another. Among those struggles that hinder enough production are linked to (1) conflicts in the region of tantalum origin (Resolve 2010 ; Metal Powder Report 2012 ; OECD 2013 ; Cook and Mitchell 2014 ; Sauer and Seuring 2017 ; Hofmann et al 2018 ; Schütte and Näher 2020 ), which triggers the increase of international rules and regulations on tantalum mineral trading; (2) frequent epidemics such as ebola (Rohan and McKay 2020 ) simultaneously with coronavirus (Musanabagnwa et al 2020 ), diarrhea (McQuilken and Perks 2021 ; Roman and Fwasa 2021 ), and malaria (Smith 2011 ; Roman and Fwasa 2021 ) that outbreak in the DRC negatively affect mining and supply chain inside the country which make the country to be isolated; (3) militias and other armed groups (Prendergast 2009 ; Blore and Smillie 2011 ; Nick 2014 ; Callaway 2017 ; Macháček 2020 ) that intervene in DRC illegal mineral trade; and (4) price fluctuation (Fortier et al 2018 ; Mancheri et al 2018 ; Schütte and Näher 2020 ) discouraging investors, miners, and mineral traders. Even if the pandemic that significantly handicaps the global mineral supply chain still exists, the progress of the mineral supply chain recovery is close to the pre-pandemic normalcy.…”

“…Recently, the tantalum market experienced swings, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, where disruption in demand, production, supply chain, and pricing became a significant challenge to tantalum consumers. Because artisanal and small‐scale mining (ASM) is the extensive method used in Rwanda and DRC mining (Macháček and Dušková 2016 ; Mancheri et al 2018 ; Macháček 2019 , 2020 ), the restrictions of COVID-19 kept their workers at home without production. Thus, those unpredicted disruptions caused by lockdowns and curfews did not leave the metal supply chain unshaken.…”

“…By taking an example of the mining sector, Africa estimates that 9 million people are directly involved in ASM, and 54 million people’s livelihoods indirectly depend on ASM (Munyati 2020 ). However, most ASM activities are informal (Macháček 2020 ; Munyati 2020 ) and COVID-19 restrictions kept all those millions at home without another income source. Most of them are young people, and according to Wim Naudé (Naudé 2021 ), the pandemic consequences will slow down Africa’s youth development for a decade and will create long-term socio-economic problems in Sub-Sahara African Region (Fagbemi 2021 ).…”

Detection of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Activities and Their Transformation Using Earth Observation, Nighttime Light, and Precipitation Data

“…Recent research has focused mainly on the environmental and health assessments of mercury pollution originating in the ASGM sector [1,8,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Several studies have focused on the C-ASGM sites, but they have been limited to point-based, time-cross-sectional analyses [25,26].…”