Artisanal and small-scale mining in Honduras: fostering responsible practices and supply chains
The Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and IIED hosted an event last May 2022 at the 15th OECD Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains exploring the potential and challenges of artisanal and small-scale mining in Honduras.
Minas y Cuevas is a Honduran community mining cooperative and a pioneer in implementing more responsible mining practices. It brings together seven community organisations that extract gold in an area formerly occupied by a large-scale mine (Photo: Alliance for Responsible Mining)
Despite its actual and potential contributions to local sustainable development, Honduras’ artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) remains largely unrecognised and lacking in support.
Since the start of 2020 the 'Honduras: land of shining gold' project has been working to support the implementation of the European Union Regulation on Conflict Minerals by fostering responsible mining practices and the creation of supply chains for two ASM communities in this conflict-affected Central American country.
The event featured two 30-minute question-and-answer panel discussions. The first 30 minutes focused on national experiences and perspectives from two miners and a government official. The second 30-minute segment focused on market and international experiences of working in Honduras.
The session shared perspectives and lessons learned from miners, Honduran government officials and companies to shed light on the country’s ASM potential and its key challenges, at a time of major political change. It was held as a side event during the 15th OECD Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains.
This event was hosted by the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and IIED, in English and Spanish.
Information on this event is also available in Spanish/información sobre el evento en español.
About the speakers
- Sandra Pineda, administrator, Minas y Cuevas, an ASM association in Macuelizo, Honduras
- Sergio Romero, president, Asociación de Mineros de Colón, an ASM association located on the country’s Caribbean coast
- Rosa Romero, Gender lead, NGHEOMIN (Instituto Hondureño de Geología y Minas), the Honduran mining authority
- Georg Steiner, chief executive officer, Heimerle + Meule, a German refiner working in Honduras for several years
- Géraud Brunel, manager Central America and Guianas, Alliance for Responsible Mining
The session was moderated by Gabriela Flores Zavala, senior associate at IIED.
Panel of the ASM National Dialogues in Tegucigalpa, Honduras (Photo: copyright Alliance for Responsible Mining)
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Contact
Gabriela Flores Zavala (gabriela.flores@iied.org), IIED senior associate
