Reassembling informal gold-mining for development and sustainability? Opportunities and limits to formalisation in India, Indonesia and Laos

In the past two decades, research activity and policy development have intensified on the issue of formalising artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), or informal mining. Numerous experts and influential institutions, including the World Bank, now view formalisation and legal registration as primary policy responses to the socio-economic, environmental and human health-related challenges posed by illegal or informal mining (see, for instance, Siegel and Veiga 2009; Maconachie and Hilson 2011; World Bank 2013). A number of African countries have made substantial progress towards the formalisation of artisanal and smallscale gold-mining (ASGM) through establishing legal rights for miners, with Ghana implementing initial provisions as early as 1989 (Maconachie and Hilson 2011). In the Asia-Pacific, Mongolia has arguably emerged at the forefront of formalisation through the provision of small-scale and community mining licences (Purevjav 2011); indeed, the Mongolian Government now views ASGM as important for maintaining national economic stability in the countrys postcommodity boom era (Financial Times 2014).