Talk:Artisanal mining

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Wildcat?

Is artisanal miner a newer/more PC term for a wildcat miner? If not, how are they different? Wildcat mining seems like a term worth mentioning in this article.Plantdrew (talk) 19:13, 25 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wildcat mining only refers to illegal mining. Artisanal mining is a much broader term and spans from communities involved permanently or seasonally in mineral extraction as their livelihood, "rush-type" (e.g. gold rushes) to "shock-push" (people pushed into this activity by economic or natural shocks) situations. Artisanal miners may be part of the informal sector (as many countries lack a legal framework for this activity) or may be organized in formal and fully legal entities (e.g. artisanal mining cooperatives). Artisanal mining is mining done in an artisanal way, which means mainly by manual work; it therefore compares to industrialized mining like a taylor to a textile factory. Felwo (talk) 20:12, 21 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

nonsensical..

"Artisanal miners often undertake the activity of mining seasonally – for example crops are planted in the rainy season, and mining is pursued in the dry season."

Since when can you plant minerals to mine them later?

Either this is incorrect or a very poor example. Or both. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.38.197.76 (talk) 18:31, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Just linked crop to clarify for you (and p'raps others). Vsmith (talk) 00:11, 19 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Artisanal is not small scale miner

Artisanal mining and small scale mining are not same thing. By having Wikipedia show this as equivalent is misleading. "artisanal miner or small-scale miner" -- this is incorrect. I have seen other people using this terminology in equivalent manner, but I disagree. My experience tell me following:

Small scale miner is often artisanal miner
Artisanal mining may easily grow into medium scale mining, so artisanal is not equivalent to "small scale"
Artisanal miners may produce, when well organized, equivalent gold output just as some foreign non-artisanal companies
Artisan is a skilled worker who practices some trade or handicraft, or who practices some liberal art, hand work.
People who come from foreign countries to Africa are by their origin, and methods, not considered "artisanal", but they often work in not more than small scale mining activity.
There is difference in artisanal mining and small scale mining. The "artisanal mining" refers to methods used. The "small scale" refers to organization, size, output, and method is of less importance. One can have best technological method, but is still "small scale" if there are just few people employed, and gold output is not as large.

I am asking editors to make a distinction and new pages "Artisanal mining" in distinction to "Small scale mining".

Reference

Reference to definitions in Burkina Faso

Further, the articles is generalized. "They are not officially employed" -- while this may be true by some percentage, there is no reference to accurate information and there never will be. I have seen artisanal miners in Tanzania, all having legal papers for work they do.

I did not see any "seasonal mining" in Tanzania.

I see the violence on 2nd heading of content list on the article. There are too many inconsistencies and generalizations that I get bad feelings when reading it. Rcdrun (talk) 12:01, 7 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Basis for maintaining "Artisanal" and "Small Scale" terms in one article=

Most literature sources use the terms "artisanal" and "small scale" in combination to describe this type of mining (abbreviated to "ASM"), and I am not aware of any widely accepted definition of a large distinction between the meanings of the two terms. If there are sources that attempt to define a distinction I believe it would be best to cover those efforts in this article rather than try to create separate articles on terms that are used so interchangeably. DiligentDavidG (talk) 14:27, 7 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]