Editor’s Note
This article details a new international partnership establishing a fully traceable and responsible gold supply chain from Peru to Switzerland. The initiative aims to support formalization and better practices in artisanal and small-scale mining.
The consolidation of a fully responsible and traceable international gold value chain from the Arequipa region of Peru to the Swiss market has been announced. This is thanks to an innovative alliance between Minera Yanaquihua S.A.C. (MYSAC), the Swiss Better Gold Association (SBGA) and its implementation partner, the Better Gold Initiative (BGI) for artisanal and small-scale mining, and the company Metalor Technologies SA. This alliance supports the formalization of artisanal gold producers.
Since 2002, the Government of Peru has been advancing towards the formalization of the artisanal and small-scale mining sector. The goal is to improve the working conditions of artisanal miners by integrating them into the formal global economy. The process requires several stages, such as ensuring safety and compliance with environmental regulations, proper tailings management, reducing water consumption, promoting formal employment, eradicating child labor, optimal use of the deposit, and increasing the recovery of minerals extracted by artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). However, the implementation of this process remains a challenge in practice.
Today’s announcement is the result of collaboration, coordination, and synergy among multiple stakeholders in the gold market who, having confirmed their support for the ASM formalization process, are creating an innovative value chain. Through this chain, artisanal gold producers benefit from technical support and market incentives as they progress on their path to formalization.
MYSAC is a small-scale gold mining company that operates its Alpacay production unit in the Arequipa region of Peru, located between 2,580 and 2,680 meters above sea level. MYSAC produces around 45,000 ounces of gold per year, approximately one-third of which comes from artisanal miners.
MYSAC implements a model where the production from two of its mining units (Mina Esperanza and Chalhuane) is processed together with minerals from artisanal miners from several neighboring communities. The supply chain presented today aims for the formalization of these artisanal producers and, as they progress in this process, allows them to develop their activities legally and transparently. The producers are assisted by MYSAC’s technical team, who help them improve their working methods, implement good environmental and social practices, extraction methods, and, most importantly, achieve formalization.
MYSAC has a long-term commitment to sustainable development, having previously obtained RJC certification from the Responsible Jewellery Council in 2014. The Chalhuane mine is in the process of obtaining the same certification. By becoming the first gold-producing company in Peru to achieve this international certification, MYSAC has demonstrated a transparent and verifiable supply chain management system, with a robust due diligence process throughout its entire value chain, including artisanal producers under its concession. It has confirmed full alignment with the main objectives of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance, building safe, transparent, and verifiable supply chains from mines to market.
— Dr. Antonio Samaniego, President of MYSAC
Since June 2019, as part of its commitment to artisanal producers, MYSAC has been working with the Better Gold Initiative (BGI), which provides additional guidance and support to the technical team in the area while evaluating artisanal suppliers. Implemented in Peru since 2013, the Better Gold Initiative is the result of a public-private partnership between the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Swiss Better Gold Association (SBGA). This initiative demonstrates the importance of ASM for public and private sector stakeholders.
— Thomas Hentschel, International Director of BGI