Transcript
An artisanal miner from Nusuta village in Solomon Islands showing the gold produced from two to three hours work at the Charivunga river, Gold Ridge.
Photo: Copyright Matthew Allen, February 2015
Around 200 people in Solomon Islands have set up camps in the pits at the closed Gold Ridge mine on Guadalcanal and have taken over gold production at the site.
The local gold miners met and spoke with Australian National University Researcher, Matthew Allen, during his trip to the mine in February.
Dr Allen, who is studying the political economy of mining in Melanesia, told Koroi Hawkins the women in some of the families he spoke to say they are earning more money mining for themselves than they ever did when the mine was operating.
MATTHEW ALLEN: When I visited the mine pits I estimated that on any given day there were up to 200 people, so men, women and children from the surrounding communities. Particularly from those communities in the immediate vicinity of the mine pits engaged in alluvial mining on any given day. But my sense is that since the operation has ceased in April last year people have actually moved into the pits and are living in the pits. You know people have built temporary housing and shelters. So there are many people actually, you know as we speak living in the pits and engaged in small scale gold production, gold panning on a daily basis.
KOROI HAWKINS: And how sophisticated or what kind of equipment are they using?
MA: Well it is not very sophisticated and you know this type of mining is often referred to as artisanal mining which by definition means that it is low technology. So people are more or less digging out ore and then panning it in the rivers or in other water sources, streams and so on. The most technical it gets is, I guess, fuel-powered or I guess petrol or diesel-powered water pumps which are then used to kind of hose down the ore body. The gold is then collected using kind of astroturf-like materials. So it is all fairly low technology. However people are making pretty good money from it so my interviews with people involved in this alluvial mining indicate that often it is that people are mining in kind of small family units, nuclear family units. So a family might produce around 5 grams of gold on average per day which is then sold to local buyers for around 180 Solomon Islands dollars (per gram). So as far as Solomon Islands goes that's a pretty good cash income. Now it is really important I mention this small scale mining activity that is going on is that it provides women and indeed children with direct access to cash income. And when I spoke to women, communities from the Gold Ridge land owning communities they were really unanimous in their view that when the mine was operating the royalty and rental payments which were going to the three land owner associations were basically controlled by men who would often use the money irresponsibly, to use their words. So you know the women were really happy that since the mine has closed, access to the pits has been made much easier for them and has been providing them with direct access to cash income which they can use for things like school fees and for taking their kids to clinics and to the hospital and so forth.
KH: Just wrapping this all up what do you see as the mine's future and if a new developer does come in these people will I presume. have to be evicted again because they had to do it initially?
MA: Look I think the mine has had a very problematic history. It's had a short history and it has been very checkered. You know it has opened and closed again on two occasions now. It's changed hands many times in terms of the owner operator. Obviously there are now significant liabilities for any potential buyer I would imagine. You know, particularly given the tailings dam situation. My understanding is that for much of the time during which St Barbara operated the mine it was very economically marginal. In fact I understand they were operating at a loss due to a combination of low gold prices and very high operating costs. And I think that the expectations on the part of the land owner associations are very high so they will looking to negotiate a new agreement with any new potential operator which will give them more favorable terms. In fact there was a report just recently in one of the daily newspapers in Solomon Islands in which the chair of one of the associations was calling for a joint venture so a 50-50 equity partnership with any new operator that may come in to run the mine.
