Rio Tinto | Minerals and Metals for the world

New horizons on the hill of gold
Hugh Leggatt describes a project in Brazil which aims to tackle poverty and create jobs in place of the legacy of hand mining.

Artisanal and small scale mining is practised by an estimated 13 million people worldwide mainly in developing countries. The methods employed - washing creek gravels, panning for gold and concentrating the grains - dating back hundreds of years, are obsolete and a danger to life, limb, health and the environment. Poverty and lack of alternative livelihoods remain the root cause. The Rio Tinto operated Morro do Ouro gold mine in Brazil was home to one of the country's historic artisanal mining sites. Addressing this legacy, a project is under way by mine and community to tackle poverty and create jobs more sustainable than hand mining.

A scrap of gold the size of a shirt button can feed a family, but the back breaking work with archaic methods to recover this small amount makes the working life of a Brazilian garimpeiro, or hand miner, hard and precarious.

With coffer, spout, washing machine, water, a well trained eye and lots of patience, these goldfingered folk can recover material that, after drying, allows a magnet to separate some flakes of gold dust to be offered to a local buyer for money or goods. This time honoured occupation was one of the mainstays of early mineral development in many countries, including Brazil.



New horizons on the hill of gold Hugh Leggatt describes a project in Brazil which aims to tackle poverty and create jobs in place of the legacy of hand mining. Artisanal and small scale mining is practised by an estimated 13 million people worldwide mainly in developing countries. The methods employed - washing creek gravels, panning for gold and concentrating the grains - dating back hundreds of years, are obsolete and a danger to life, limb, health and the environment. Poverty and lack of alternative livelihoods remain the root cause. The Rio Tinto operated Morro do Ouro gold mine in Brazil was home to one of the country's historic artisanal mining sites. Addressing this legacy, a project is under way by mine and community to tackle poverty and create jobs more sustainable than hand mining. A scrap of gold the size of a shirt button can feed a family, but the back breaking work with archaic methods to recover this small amount makes the working life of a Brazilian garimpeiro, or hand miner, hard and precarious. With coffer, spout, washing machine, water, a well trained eye and lots of patience, these goldfingered folk can recover material that, after drying, allows a magnet to separate some flakes of gold dust to be offered to a local buyer for money or goods. This time honoured occupation was one of the mainstays of early mineral development in many countries, including Brazil.
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Review is published by Rio Tinto, 6 St James' Square, London SW1Y 4LD, England Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 2399 Editor: Cherry DeGeer