Socio-technical study of small-scale gold mining in Suriname
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- 作者：Jacopo Seccatorea ; b ; c ; jacopo.seccatore@usp.br ; Marjo de Theijed ; e
- 关键词：Artisanal mining ; Suriname ; Gold ; Mercury
- 刊名：Journal of Cleaner Production
- 出版年：2017
- 出版时间：15 February 2017
- 年：2017
- 卷：144
- 期：Complete
- 页码：107-119
- 全文大小：8833 K
- 卷排序：144
文摘
Small-scale gold mining is Suriname’s main economic sector, producing about two thirds of the nation’s gold. Despite this, the sector is only very loosely regulated and most small-scale mining activities are informal. Surinamese miners are only a minority: the majority are Brazilian migrants, who have no right to the land and therefore have to pay a percentage of their production for land use. This study reports the findings of a field mission to small-scale mines in the region of Brokopondo reservoir. We document the technical aspects of small-scale gold mining in Suriname and contextualize this technology to social issues to identify links with cultural, political and sociological factors. Our findings show that informality and insecurity lead to a mine management culture that applies short-term solutions, such as cheap but polluting and inefficient technologies, and fails to produce stable, long-term mining conditions for clean, efficient technology and secure business planning. We conclude that the social context of the mining economy in Suriname strongly interacts with the technologies employed.