Blog

Eight researchers from the Gold Matters recently participated as contributing authors tothe book “Global Gold Production Touching Ground: Expansion, Informalization, and TechnologicalInnovation” edited by Sara Geenen and Boris Verbrugge. Luciana Massaro Adopting a global viewpoint, this book shows how large and small-scale gold mining are both integral part of the global gold production system. Twelve…
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  For gold mining communities in the Brazilian Amazon, responses to Covid-19 is two sided: on the one hand, the vulnerability of small-scale gold miners (garimpeiros) is exposed, while on the other their capacity to find coping solutions is revealed. Edit   Luciana Massaro, Marjo de Theije, Jorge Calvimontes    Mining is an essential activity “Unfortunately,…
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​Reporting on fieldwork in the Tapajós region of the Brazilian Amazon, Raíssa Resende de Moraes shows how the relationship between indigenous people and gold mining reflects a complex reality that challenges a simple dichotomy of miners’ vs indigenous people. Raíssa Resende de Moraes The social arenas (Ferreira, 2005; 2017) that surround indigenous peoples and Artisanal…
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This blog is based on Chapter 12 of the book ‘Global Gold Production Touching Ground: Expansion, Informalisation, and Technological Innovation’, edited by Verbrugge and Geenen (2020).   Uganda: Gold – A National Treasure? Eleanor Fisher, Lorenzo D’Angelo, Ronald Twongyirwe, and Esther van de Camp   The authors consider how elite privilege and entrenched inequalities undermine…
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Alizèta Ouédraogo For artisanal gold miners in south-western Burkina Faso, the Covid-19 pandemic is creating hunger, uncertainty and disruption, including for the Tãngpogse, the female economic entrepreneurs of the gold panning sites. Compounding an already difficult context related to Jihadist terrorism, gold panning has been impeded by the closure of air and land borders, the…
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New blog entry about GOLD MATTERS: transformações em direção à sustentabilidade by Marjo de Theije e Jorge Calvimontes.

Robert Pijpers & Sabine Luning – With special thanks to all participants of the workshop Co-labouring in research projects generates new perspectives and creates shared experiences and moments of enjoyment. Reporting on a recent workshop in Ghana, Robert Pijpers and Sabine Luning show how co-labouring both bridges and reveals inequalities inherent in research practices. Between…
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Artisanal and Small-scale Mining and the ‘Corona-djadiste’, by the Gold Matters Team via t2sresearch.org 27 April 2020 https://t2sresearch.org/output/artisanal-and-small-scale-gold-mining-and-the-corona-djadiste/

In November 2018, when I conducted my first fieldwork for our Gold Matters project, the town of Tarkwa in Ghana was unusually quiet. Although unusual, it had been like this for several months. Whereas Tarkwa is known as a bustling mining town – hosting not only some of Ghana´s largest industrial mines, but also numerous…
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In March, collective pilot fieldwork was undertaken in Northern Ghana involving team members with different regional expertise. The research involved two senior researchers with expertise in respectively South America and West Africa, one PhD working in Burkina Faso and one in Uganda. Three topics were central: the working conditions underground, gender aspects of work along the…
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