Formalisation initiatives for small scale mining: status quo and empirical analysis for Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC

Jan Lenard Rother, Heike Y. Schenk-Mathes and Jan-Martin Köckemann

African Journal of Economic and Sustainable Development, 2016, vol. 5, issue 4, 318-342

Abstract: In countries of the Great Lakes region in Central Africa, which are rich in natural mineral resources, small scale mining could contribute to economic welfare and poverty reduction. However, the omnipresent linkage of regional minerals with war and violence causes the buyer side to introduce precautionary measures as the Dodd-Frank Act. These, in turn, lead to either low price for Central African minerals on the international market or even a de facto embargo of minerals originating from the Great Lakes region. We analyse whether formalisation initiatives like the introduction of obligatory tagging systems or voluntary certification programs could mitigate these problems. In a survey carried out in 2012 and 2013 in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we find evidence that formalisation does not impair productivity and may improve safety conditions, whereas income related aspects seem to depend on national and regional conditions.

Keywords: conflict minerals; small scale mining; Rwanda; Burundi; DRC; Democratic Republic of Congo; Dodd-Frank Act; voluntary certification; tagging; empirical survey; mining industry; rare earth materials; productivity; safety conditions; income; formalisation initiatives. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=79436 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ajesde:v:5:y:2016:i:4:p:318-342

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in African Journal of Economic and Sustainable Development from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().