Barksanem™ has signed a Master License in Peru aimed at improving the livelihoods of mining micro-communities through sustainable, people-centric, responsible mining. Houston, Texas (May11th 2020) Barksanem™, Inc. located in Houston, Texas, and its sister company Barksanem™ Sarl, an R&D and training arm for Barksanem™, based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and engaged in responsible mining and semi-industrial /
It’s the middle of the night when this little man wakes up. He is only about twelve years old. Nobody knows exactly when he was born. He stretches out on his worn mat. He wears the work clothes he wore yesterday and the days before that. His clothes are dusty and black with sweat, torn
Typical environmental impacts of artisanal and small-scale mining are as follows: deforestation, topsoil removal, use of chemicals such as mercury for gold processing as well as for silver, unmanaged runoff and drainage issues, siltation of rivers – which can affect river ecosystems, disruption of naturally occurring chemicals in the soil. For example, in Nigeria artisanal
One of the emerging topics that’s come out is the mercury agenda. Artisanal and small-scale miners and the processing centers where they take their ore, are the number one emitter of human-released mercury in the world. As a result of this, there is a treaty that was signed in 2013 called the Minamata Convention. This
There are many different challenges faced by the artisanal miner, one of which is technical challenges. We have seen mining shafts as deep as 80 meters (260 feet) with small air hoses that miners’ breath into, securing themselves with hemp ropes. The lack of precautionary safety measures puts the miners’ lives at risk on
In many commonly referred to “emerging” nations, the informal sector is often predominant in shaping the economic fabric, compared to the “formal” sector. It is generally thought that when a person doesn’t register his business, this is done in order to avoid paying taxes. Very often, people’s lack of confidence in their government, their financial
One of the building blocks of Barksanem™’s mining vision is “people” and more broadly their “community“. The management team of Barksanem™ adhere to the belief that without man there is no business, no market, no supply chain, no value chain, no blockchain etc. Technology, organizations, capital and even the end product make sense only if
When visiting the many artisanal mining sites in Burkina Faso, where thousands of gold miners gather, women are everywhere. Not only in the food preparation area, or in the small restaurants along the dusty roads, or in the shops that make up the mining village, but much closer to the mines themselves, and sometimes even
Within the artisanal mining sector there are a few different types of miners that are typically seen in different places. In certain countries one type of artisanal mining can be called seasonal mining and this is often where rural farmers mine certain parts of the year. They might mine in the dry season and farm in
The ASM sector produces about 80% of the world’s color gemstones, up to a quarter of all gold in the world, about a quarter of all cobalt and tin, and about 15% of all diamonds. In other words, they’re not insignificant producers, they’re the world’s hidden suppliers. In a previous article we detailed this market
