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AbstractThis paper studies the exposure of Australian gold mining firms to changes in the gold price. We use a theoretical framework to formulate testable hypotheses regarding the gold exposure of gold mining firms. The empirical analysis based on all gold mining firms in the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Gold Index for the period from January 1980 to December 2010 finds that the average gold beta is around one but varies significantly through time. The relatively low average gold beta is attributed to the hedging and diversification of gold mining firms. We further find an asymmetric effect in gold betas, i.e. the gold exposure increases with positive gold price changes and decreases with negative gold price changes consistent with gold mining companies exercising real options on gold.

AbstractThe increase in the international price of commodities after the international financial crisis in 2008 produced a gold rush in the Colombian economy, making legal and illegal mining a very profitable and attractive business. The increase in the illegal exploitation of metals like gold has exacerbated violence in municipalities with an abundance of such minerals. Gold is believed to be a new engine in the Colombian conflict. This paper documents the phenomenon and quantifies the causal impact that the gold boom has had on indicators of violence such as homicides, forced displacement and massacres. We use the location of national parks, indigenous reserves and geochemical anomalies associated with the presence of gold mines as instruments for illegal mining in order to disentangle the causal effect of illegal mining on violence. By law, it is very difficult to get licenses for the extraction of gold in parks and indigenous reserves, and this might be a factor increasing the prevalence of illegal mining activities in municipalities with these features. In order to have time variation in our instruments, we interact geographical features associated with the presence of gold and illegal gold mining (which vary only at the municipal level) with the international price of gold. Our estimates indicate that the rise of illegal gold mining has caused a statistically significant increase in violence, as measured with the homicide rate and the victims of massacres. However, we do not find a significant causal effect of illegal gold mining on forced displacement. Our interpretation is that the increase in the profitability of illegal mining activities has sparked a dispute over territorial control between illegal armed groups in order to monopolize the extraction of the precious minerals. Nevertheless, illegal mining is a labor intensive activity, and this may have counteracted the incentives of illegal armed groups to displace local populations from their land.

Identifying and analyzing the causes and consequences that generate the high consumption of mercury in gold mining activities is an internacional priority. In Colombia, eighty-seven percent of the country's gold mines have no mining title and only 3% posses environmental lawlessness, the failures of formalization programs and the inadequacy of importation controls on the supply are the cause of the high consumption of mercury in Colombian mining. To diagnose the country's gold mining activities and the excessive use of mercury in them, we used six information sources (semi-structured interviews, 2011 Census on Mining Activities), nine dependent and 21 independent variables. The study evidenced the miners' partiality in favor of the use of mercury in the procurement of gold; the process is easy, quick and inexpensive. Mercury concentrations were found to be above tolerable levels. In response, government has opted for a policy of persecution of the activity rather than the promotion of their formalization.

Introduction For much of the 1990s, the tourist town of Bergama was the epicentre of Turkey's most effective and visible environmental social movement against a multinational mining corporation aiming to establish the first modern gold mine in the country. Bringing relatively prosperous peasants together with a small group of ambitious policy entrepreneurs, the movement marked a turning point in environmental politics in Turkey. Motivated primarily by the environmental and public health risks posed by cyanide leaching, the peasant activists waged an unprecedented campaign that acted as a forceful reminder of the potential of social mobilization to impart lasting change both at the local and national level. While the peasant activists failed at the end to stop the operation of the mine, their campaign sparked a national discussion over the environmental costs of rapid economic growth in Turkey.

Conflicts of different nature surround the activity of small scale gold mining. After first addressing some of these conflicts, we subsequently focus on how the fact that the activity often takes place in remote and marginal areas, influences the ways these conflicts emerge and develop. We distinguish four different takes on the issue, and discuss each of these on the basis of case studies in Peru and Surinam. We finally suggest some general conclusions about the role of geographical and political distance as a structural feature in the conflicts around gold mining.

Gold mining, like all other forms of mining, is strongly associated with the production of a wide range of residues, whether this concerns (toxic) waste materials or the environments transformed in pursuit of gold. Frequently, these residual products, such as soil, mud, rocks, and water, as well as the environments from which they are extracted or where they are deposited, appear as waste, cast aside or abandoned, rendered as useless by-products or destroyed lands. In this photographic essay, we build on recent insight regarding the fluid character of waste by extending analysis into both the domains of materials and of space because not only can specific materials be repurposed as resources, but also specific spaces can be transformed from sites of abandonment to sites of production (or vice versa), whether for mining or other activities. These photographic series show how different actors repurpose material and spatial residues. By centralising images of processes of repurposing, this essay nuances and offers a counterweight to dominant visual narratives. These typically focus on environmental and social damage, and often take a perspective 'from above' as they largely draw on aerial images. In doing so, these narratives tend to flatten or even erase local complexity and heterogeneity, and risk reproducing received negative stereotypes about artisanal and small-scale mining and miners. Importantly, as will transpire throughout the essay, the phenomena and processes depicted in our images shape and are shaped by different social, political, economic, technological, environmental, and historical relations and dynamics. These include, for example, former mining trajectories, gendered production relations, miners' socio-economic positions, the involvement of external actors, and the introduction of new capital, knowledge and technologies. Ultimately, this illuminates the necessity of approaching 'waste' in fluid, relational, and transformative terms as material and spatial endings are turned into new beginnings. ; Funders: Belmont Forum, NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe). ; Gold Matters

The book presents the historical evolution of gold mining activities in the Egyptian and Nubian Desert (Sudan) from about 4000 BC until the Early Islamic Period (~800-1350 AD), subdivided into the main classical epochs including the Early Dynastic - Old and Middle Kingdoms - New Kingdom (including Kushitic) - Ptolemaic - Roman and Early Islamic. It is illustrated with many informative colour images, maps and drawings. An up to date comprehensive geological introduction gives a general overview on the gold production zones in the Eastern Desert of Egypt and northern (Nubian) Sudan, including the various formation processes of the gold bearing quartz veins mined in these ancient periods. The more than 250 gold production sites presented, are described both, from their archaeological (as far as surface inventory is concerned) and geological environmental conditions, resulting in an evolution scheme of prospection and mining methods within the main periods of mining activities. The book offers for the first time a complete catalogue of the many gold production sites in Egypt and Nubia under geological and archaeological aspects. It provides information about the importance of gold for the Pharaohs and the spectacular gold rush in Early Arab times.

Since the liberalisation of the gold mining sector in the 1990s, the state of Burkina Faso has the task of allotting exploration and exploitation permits to private companies. International junior companies are exploring vast concessions in Burkina, and publish promising prospects on the internet. Scrutinising the presence of (inter)national companies both on the web and on the ground, the article shows how a set of concessions constitutes a 'field', defined as a system of social positions structured in terms of power relations. Concessions bring together a wide range of professionals in mining: potential investors, international companies, Burkinabe entrepreneurs and artisanal miners. The article describes how legal distinctions affect the power structure of working arrangements on one particular group of exploration permits in the central part of Burkina, currently held by the Canadian company High River Gold: the Bissa permit Group. It examines what happens on the ground when companies are allotted formal titles, whereas artisanal miners can at best aspire to obtain marginal places for their informal practices.

The purpose of this study was to determine the pattern of socio-economic relations in gold mining in Bombana Regency. This research was carried out in Tahi Ite Village, Rarowatu District, Bombana Regency by using a qualitative approach. The results showed that the pattern of socio-economic relations in gold mining in Tahi Ite Village, Rarowatu Subdistrict, Bombana District intertwined, among others; 1) Government's Social-Economic Relationship with the Community, namely the transfer of management with consideration of income. 2) Government's Socio-Economic Relations with Investors, namely increasing regional own-source revenue (PAD) through profit-sharing/royalty 3) Investor's Social-Economic Relationship with the Community, namely the opening of employment opportunities. 4) Socio-Economic Relations Among Communities, namely land management by way of profit sharing or percent of the land.

ABSTRACTThis study was aimed to analyze the impact of gold mining on livelihoods of farmers in rural area of Bombana District. The research used sustainable livelihoods approach which focus on vulnerability context faced by farmers around gold mine site and ownership of and access to capital assets which were influenced by mining activity, which in the end lead to increasing or decreasing livelihood outcome of farmers in the area. The study was done in three villages around the gold mine site. Data was gathered through combination of quantitative and qualitative method using sample survey, in-depth interview and focus group discussion. The result showed that there was declining on rice production due to decreasing of farm land and land degradation as a result of draught season that affected the area. Watu-Watu village was the worst in terms of the loss of natural assets compare to other villages. Policy, institution and process which were represented by government and mining companies have added local communities' exposure to vulnerability context they already faced. Livelihood diversification was chosen as coping strategy out of livelihood crisis due to the loss of productive assets caused by mining activities.Keywords: gold, mining, farmers, livelihood, BombanaABSTRAKPenelitian ini dilakukan untuk menganalisa dampak kegiatan peambangan emas terhadap capaian penghidupan masyarakat di wilayah pedesaan kabupaten BombanA, dengan menggunakan pendekatan penghidupan yang berkelanjutan, yang menekankan pada konteks kerentanan yang dihadapi oleh masyarakat petani di sekitar wilayah penambangan serta pola kepemilikan dan akses terhadap aset-aset penghidupan yang dipengaruhi oleh kegiatan penamanbangan, yang pada gilirannya dapat meningkatkan atau menurunkan kemampuannya dalam memperoleh capaian penghidupan yang lebih baik. Penelitian ini akan dilakukan di tiga desa di loaksi penambangan. Metode penelitian menggabungkan antara metode kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Metode kualitatif melalui Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), fokus grup diskusi dan wawancara mendalam, dan metode kuantitatif dengan menggunakan sample survey. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adanya penurunan produksi pertanian di lokasi penelitian yang disebabkan berkurangnya lahan pertanian dan kerusakan lahan akibat kekeringan yang melanda lokasipenelitian. Desa Watu-Watu merupakan desa yang terparah dalam hal kehilangan aset penghidupan dibandingkan kedua desa lainnya. Keberadaan kebijakan, kelembagaan dan proses yang diwakili oleh pemerintah dan perusahaan penambangan merupakan faktor yang semakin menekan posisi masyarakat setempat dalam konteks kerentanan yang dihadapinya. Upaya masyarakat untuk keluar dari krisis penghidupan akibat berkurang akses terhadap aset penghidupan melahirkan diversifikasi sumber nafkah sebagai bentuk coping strategy, dan tidak semata-mata tergantung pada sektor pertanian, tetapi juga pada sektor non pertanian.Kata kunci: tambang emas, penghidupan, petan, Bombana.