Small-Scale Gold Mining and Sustainable Regional Development in Amapá

Small-Scale Mineral Extraction and its Integration into a Strategy for Sustainable Regional Development

2021 · WWF-Brasil · NAEA/UFPA · Amapá · Small-Scale Mining · Regional Development

Gold Mining · Garimpo · Mining Governance · Formalization · Organizations · Socio-Environmental Conditions · Sustainable Development

Project Overview

Small-Scale Gold Mining and Sustainable Regional Development in Amapá was an applied research project examining the conditions under which non-industrial mineral extraction could contribute more effectively to sustainable regional development in the Brazilian Amazon.

The research originated in a concept developed at NAEA/UFPA in April 2021 under the title A extração de recursos minerais em pequena escala e sua inserção em uma estratégia de desenvolvimento regional sustentável. The subsequent study was commissioned by WWF-Brasil, with contractual administration through FADESP.

The research focused empirically on Amapá, where small-scale gold mining has long formed part of regional economies and settlement processes. Rather than treating garimpo exclusively as an environmental problem or as an economic activity, the study examined the relationships between mineral extraction, regional economies, labour, organizations, formalization, public policy, environmental pressures and local development.

I developed the original research concept and subsequently conducted the diagnostic research together with Marcelo José de Oliveira.

Research Problem

Small-scale gold mining occupies an ambivalent position in Amazonian development.

It can provide employment and income and sustain economic activity in locations where alternative opportunities are limited. At the same time, mining can generate substantial environmental, occupational-health and social costs and frequently operates through institutional arrangements in which formal and informal practices coexist.

The research therefore moved beyond a simple opposition between mining and environmental protection.

Its central concern was to examine the conditions under which non-industrial mineral extraction could become a socially accepted and effective contribution to sustainable regional development.

This required analysing not only mining operations themselves but also the wider relationships connecting mineral extraction to markets, labour, local economies, political regulation, organizations, environmental conditions and territorial development.

Small-Scale Mining in Amapá

The research identified small-scale mining as a historically established component of regional transformation in Amapá.

Particular attention was given to mining areas including Lourenço, Vila Nova/Gaivota and Oiapoque, together with other areas of mineral activity in the state.

The analysis showed that mining territories differ considerably in their historical development, organizational structures and degree of formalization. In some locations, mineral extraction contributed to the emergence of relatively permanent settlements and local economies. Elsewhere, mining was organized through more dispersed or less formalized arrangements.

This territorial diversity made it necessary to analyse garimpo not as a uniform sector but as a set of different regional configurations of mineral extraction, settlement, organization and economic activity.

Formalization, Information & Mining Governance

One of the central problems identified by the research concerned the relationship between formal mining records and actual mineral extraction.

Official administrative information did not provide a complete representation of small-scale mining activity. The research therefore combined different sources of information to identify mining locations and characterize their activities.

This revealed a broader governance problem: effective public policy requires reliable knowledge about where mining occurs, who participates in it, how production is organized and how extraction relates to local economies and environmental conditions.

The production and organization of information therefore became an important component of the research.

Rather than treating data simply as a technical input, the study demonstrated the importance of knowledge and information for the capacity of public institutions and other actors to develop appropriate forms of intervention.

Organizations and Resource Governance

The research also examined the organizational structures surrounding small-scale mining.

Mining operations are embedded in relationships involving mine owners, workers, service providers, suppliers, equipment operators, landholders, public institutions, political actors and organizations representing miners.

Particular attention was given to cooperatives and other forms of collective organization. In mining areas such as Lourenço and Vila Nova/Gaivota, cooperatives formed part of the institutional environment through which mining activities, formalization and relations with public authorities were organized.

These relationships demonstrated that the governance of small-scale mining cannot be understood exclusively through mining legislation or individual mining operations. It depends upon wider organizational and institutional networks connecting extraction, labour, markets, regulation and territorial interests.

Regional Economies and Territorial Relations

An important dimension of the study concerned the economic relationships between mining and surrounding regions.

The research examined how mineral extraction generates flows of income, goods, services and employment and how these relationships contribute to local economic activity.

The case of Oiapoque added a cross-border dimension. Economic activities in the municipality were connected in different ways to mining occurring across the border in French Guiana, illustrating how local economies can become linked to mineral-extraction networks extending beyond national territorial boundaries.

These observations reinforced the need to understand mining through its regional economic and territorial relations, rather than solely through individual extraction sites.

Socio-Environmental Conditions

The diagnostic research examined environmental and social costs associated with small-scale mineral extraction.

Environmental issues included impacts on water systems and risks associated with mercury use. Social dimensions included occupational health and safety, working conditions and malaria.

These different consequences highlighted the difficulty of evaluating mining through a single sustainability criterion.

Economic contributions, employment, environmental pressures, occupational conditions, institutional capacity and long-term regional consequences must instead be considered together when evaluating possible pathways toward more sustainable forms of mineral extraction.

Beyond Gold

Although gold constituted the principal focus of the research, the analysis of mining permits and applications also identified cassiterite and tantalite as relevant minerals within the small-scale mining landscape of Amapá.

This broadened the empirical perspective beyond gold and indicated that small-scale mineral extraction in the region forms part of a more diversified mineral-resource economy.

The observation subsequently acquired additional relevance in my research trajectory as questions concerning critical raw materials, responsible mineral supply and the relationships between mineral production and regional development became increasingly important.

Research Approach

The project combined several forms of evidence and analysis, including:

documentary and regulatory research;
mining and mineral-rights information;
socioeconomic data;
environmental and health information;
territorial and spatial analysis;
analysis of mining organizations and cooperatives;
public-policy analysis;
analysis of regional economic relationships;
comparison between formal records and observable mining activity.

The study therefore constituted a multi-dimensional diagnostic assessment rather than a conventional environmental-impact study.

An important methodological feature was the combination of information originating in different institutional domains. Where mining statistics alone were insufficient, other sources were used to improve understanding of the territorial distribution and characteristics of small-scale extraction.

From Diagnosis to Intervention

The research did not stop at identifying problems associated with small-scale mining.

The diagnostic report developed an initial framework for thinking about the conditions required for a more sustainable organization of non-industrial mineral extraction.

The proposed intervention perspective distinguished four interconnected dimensions:

Environmental sustainability — reducing environmental damage and improving environmental practices.

Economic sustainability — strengthening the capacity of mining to generate viable and regionally relevant economic activity.

Social sustainability — improving working and social conditions associated with mineral extraction.

Institutional sustainability — strengthening organizations, information, formalization and the institutional capacity required to govern mineral extraction.

This framework shifted the analytical question from whether small-scale mining should simply be accepted or rejected toward the more demanding question of which structural and institutional changes would be required for mineral extraction to contribute to sustainable regional development.

My Role

I developed the original research concept A extração de recursos minerais em pequena escala e sua inserção em uma estratégia de desenvolvimento regional sustentável at NAEA/UFPA in April 2021.

The concept defined the research problem, diagnostic architecture and a broader sequence moving from diagnosis toward the development and discussion of possible public-policy interventions.

Following the commissioning of the diagnostic study by WWF-Brasil, I participated directly in the research and co-authored the resulting diagnostic report with Marcelo José de Oliveira.

My contribution was particularly connected to the relationship between small-scale mineral extraction, public policy, organizations and regional development.

Research Output

The principal documented research output is the diagnostic study:

Diagnóstico da situação atual da garimpagem — com enfoque na situação no Estado do Amapá

Armin Mathis & Marcelo José de Oliveira, 2021.

The report analysed the territorial organization of small-scale mining, mineral production and formalization, socio-environmental conditions, organizations, public policy and possibilities for intervention.

A later working version documents the continued revision and development of the diagnostic analysis during 2021.

The original research concept envisaged additional stages involving field research, stakeholder discussion and further development of a public-policy proposal. These activities are not presented here as completed project outputs because their execution has not yet been independently documented.

Contribution to My Research

The Amapá research brought together several strands that had developed through my earlier work on Amazonian mining and regional development.

Earlier research had examined artisanal gold mining, labour relations, technological change, mining organizations, public policy and conflicts over access to mineral resources. The Amapá project placed these questions within an explicitly regional-development-oriented intervention framework.

Three issues became particularly important.

Knowledge and formalization. Public intervention depends upon the capacity to observe mineral extraction adequately. Differences between formal administrative records and actual mining activity therefore constitute not simply a data problem but a governance problem.

Organizations and mediation. Mining is organized through relationships among workers, mine owners, cooperatives, public institutions, service providers, political actors and other organizations. These relationships influence both the possibilities of formalization and the regional consequences of extraction.

Regional consequences. The contribution of mineral extraction to development cannot be evaluated solely through mineral production. Employment, economic flows, environmental pressures, institutional capacity and territorial relations determine how mining becomes consequential within particular regional settings.

These questions continued to inform my subsequent research on responsible mining, critical raw materials, resource governance and regional development.

From Small-Scale Mining to Regional Development in World Society

The Amapá project was conducted before the development of the current theoretical framework of Regional Development in World Society (RWS). It should therefore not be interpreted as an application of RWS.

Its relevance is genealogical and empirical.

The research demonstrated how processes extending beyond Amapá—including mineral markets, mining regulation, environmental norms and cross-border relations—interacted with historically established mining territories, organizations and local economies.

It also showed that these relationships produced differentiated consequences. Mining could simultaneously generate income and employment, environmental pressures, occupational risks, political conflicts and demands for public intervention.

The difficulty of obtaining reliable information about mining added another dimension: regional processes become accessible to intervention only through particular forms of observation, data and organizational knowledge.

From the perspective of my current research, P-05 therefore provides an important empirical antecedent for later questions concerning knowledge and measurement, organizations, material conditions, selective connections to wider societal processes and asymmetric regional consequences.

Retrospective analytical relevance:
Mining · Organizations · Knowledge and measurement · Formalization · Material conditions · Global–regional relations · Territorial differentiation · Asymmetric consequences

The relationship to RWS is one of research genealogy rather than theoretical continuity.