Artisanal and small-scale gold mining; ASGM; Illegal mining; Remote Sensing; Gold mining; Mining activities; Remote-sensing; Small scale; Southeast Asia; Geography, Planning and Development
Abstract :
[en] Global demand for gold is growing through the manufacture of jewellery and electronic products. The growing demand for gold is met through both large and small-scale mining. Thus, there is also an increasing number of informal Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) activities in Africa, Southeast Asia, and South/Latin America. This paper, therefore, assesses the use of Remote Sensing (RS) towards monitoring and addressing illicit ASGM activities across the globe. A systematic literature review was combined with fieldwork and case study analysis of data. Specific case studies have been conducted in Columbia, Mongolia, and Ghana to assess the influence of cloud cover over RS data and detection of illicit ASGM activities, respectively. Considering the levels of application of RS for monitoring and addressing illicit ASGM, it is found that South America records highest in holistic applications, then followed by Africa and Asia. For country-specific applications of Remote Sensing for monitoring ASGM activities in Southeast Asia, Indonesia leads the chart, in Latin America, Brazil and Peru dominate while Ghana and D.R. Congo lead the Chart in Africa. Thus, these countries host hotspots of illicit ASGM activities across the regions. From the results, it is observed that Columbia has more cloud cover persistence than Mongolia and Ghana, thereby, making it feasible for monitoring and detection in the latter countries than the former.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Moomen, Abdul-Wadood ; School of Mines and Built Environment, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Ghana
Lacroix, Pierre; Institute for Environmental Sciences, EnviroSPACE Lab, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland ; Institute for Environmental Sciences, GRID-Geneva, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Benvenuti, Antonio; Institute for Environmental Sciences, EnviroSPACE Lab, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Planque, Marion; Institute for Environmental Sciences, EnviroSPACE Lab, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Ibrahim, Elsy ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département ArGEnCo > Géoressources minérales & Imagerie géologique
Giuliani, Gregory; Institute for Environmental Sciences, EnviroSPACE Lab, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland ; Institute for Environmental Sciences, GRID-Geneva, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Language :
English
Title :
Assessing the strategic applications of remote sensing for addressing illicit artisanal and small-scale gold mining activities
Publication date :
June 2024
Journal title :
GeoJournal
ISSN :
0343-2521
eISSN :
1572-9893
Publisher :
Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
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