Socio –economic sutuation of informal miners in Zaamar soum, Khailaast bag

M O N G O L I A N N AT U R E A N D E N V I R O N M E N T C O N S O RT I U M

Socio –economic sutuation of informal miners in Zaamar soum, Khailaast bag

Demographic and socio-economic profile of Zaamar ilugal gold miners

Demographic profile

The sex ratio of men to women among survey participants was 9 to 1. More in Men aged between 20 and 24 were engaged in informal gold

mining alone and women aged between 35 and 39 do so with their families. The median age was 35.

Socio-economic profile

Forty-two point four percent of the total survey participants had incomplete secondary education and education level varied according to gender.

Men with incomplete secondary education were higher than women by 9 points and women with complete secondary education were higher than men by 3 points.

Of informal gold miners involved in the survey 41,44 percent had been engaged in this field for 2 to 5 years and the average employment period was 3.7 years.

Socio-economic profile

Survey participants responded that worries and fears from being buried in a landslide, falling down and getting into accidents, were hardships and difficulties that concern them more than not having water, home and electricity.

It shows that informal gold miners are subject to mental difficulties rather than basic human needs for shelter, food, and clothing.

Working and living conditions

Socio-economic concerns

Migration and civil registration

47.74 percent of informal gold miners engaged in placer mining sites involved in the survey were local, residual percent were migrants, and average period of engagement was 3.7 years.

46.84 percent of informal gold miners cooperate with their families with more than 2 members and relatives and, based on their skilled specialization, partnerships in the form of micro-mines could be operated.

The majority of informal gold miners responded they have an ID card, half responded they have a health insurance card and 4.5 percent responded they have no documents to the question, “Do you have any civil registration document at the moment?”

Difficulties in civil registration

When asked about difficulties incurred during registration, 18.18 percent of informal gold miners who went to the local registration office responded that they have no migration documents, 18.18 percent are unable to afford the registration fee, and 45.45 percent do not know how to get registration.

Difficulties incurred by the registration office for migrants include impolite communication of officers (27.27 percent), too many documents required for registration or to much bureaucracy (18.18 percent) and no possibilities to meet registration officers (36.36 percent).

Employment and income

When asked about reasons for getting involved in informal gold mining, 31.53 percent of miners responded their reason was to pay their children’s tuition,

34.23 percent to get apartments,26.13 percent to pay debts,27.93 percent to find treatment

money and 63.06 percent to improve their livelihood

As for productivity of informal gold miners by age of respondents involved in the survey, the productivity of those aged between 25 and 34 was relatively higher than that of others or 3.0-5.0gr (approx. 1 ounce1) gold a day. Labor productivity of men per day was more than that of women by 1-2 points.

Employment and income

Selling gold and accumulation

The amount of income derived from gold mining depends upon types of deposits, employment years, experiences, and skills of miners

The main form of selling gold is to trade to grocery stores at a lower price and to barter for goods, which does not allow for money accumulation.

Working conditions and occupational safety

Labor equipment and schedule

15-44 year-old-males work 1.7-3 hours a day but 15-25 and 40-50 year-old females work 3-5 hours a day. Informal gold miners mostly use hand equipment such as shovel (96.40 percent), bag (64.86 percent), container (76.58 percent), bucket (40.54 percent), crowbar (50.45 percent), and spud (39.64 percent) dedicated for physical works. After observing the equipment, it was seen that shovels and crowbars are blunt, and the containers and bags do not meet basic work requirements. This is related to the lack of equipment.

Personal protective equipment and its usage

Informal gold miners do not have enough knowledge on the usage of protective equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct training on the importance of protective equipment, the purchase of and permanent usage of protective equipment, to give methodology instruction, and hygienic labor assistance.

Work and rest regime of informal gold miners

Informal gold miners are living and working in condition of industrial and drinking water supply that do not meet living standards.

Informal gold miners work an average of 10 hours per work day and their work hours, breaks and weekends depend on gold yield, seasonal conditions and the weather. They do not follow any work and rest regime.

Access to and need for health services

Access to health services

There are twice as many expressed needs for informal gold mining women as for men. This may be connected to their attitudes towards health and difficult working conditions.

The majority of informal gold miners have access to medical services at soum hospitals, regardless of their civil registration status.

Эрүүл мэндийн тусламж, үйлчилгээний хэрэгцээ

Due to a lack of organization as entities and social insurance, informal gold miners have no access to benefits and compensations.

Reliable drug services, examination and diagnosis, special check-ups, professional consultation and training on preventing accidents and injuries, control and healing activities, and reproductive health care and services are essential for informal gold miners.

Access to social services

Access of informal gold miners to social care services

It is common in aimags that informal gold miners do not have access to social services due to failure to meet the requirements for social services coverage because of lack of registration in the local area and having no civil documents.

Informal gold miners who were unable to pay social insurance premiums for more than 20 years or who could not meet the conditions for having access to pensions when they reached retirement age, account for a large percent of the uninsured

Access of informal gold miners to social care services

Informal gold miners’ needs for social insurance

Elderly engaged in informal mining need retirement pensions whilst children and women need social care benefits.

Due to poor working conditions, along with many industrial accidents and violation of safety regulations, industrial accident insurance was named as most necessary one among the types of social insurance.

Cultural and Behavioural issues

Common obstacles

Informal gold miners represented in this survey usually face difficulties such as having no possibility of developing as individuals, lacking legal acts and documents that regulate activities, being deficient in socializing and upbringing, and having a shortage of cultural goods and services.

Reaction to accidents and deaths

Changes in behaviours and assessments related to ways of life; evaluation of interpersonal relations and satisfaction

Most of them underwent behavioural changes of losing trust in others, becoming frustrated and changing manners due to engagement in informal gold mining.

The majority of informal gold miners preferred their former ways of life before engaging in informal gold mining, and they were dissatisfied or had medium satisfaction about their current activities.

Recommendations

Encouraging employment of informal gold minersand providing employment opportunities

Considering goals of informal gold miners should beorganized into a “partnership” or “bagh” formate according to their interests and theyshould be involved in registration as legal bodies or entities;

Encouraging employment of informal gold minersand providing employment opportunities

Annual information on informal gold miners, using local administrations and authorities, should be issued, their employment issues and roles in the informal sector of labor market should be defined, and policy makers and related organizations should be provided with this information

Encouraging employment of informal gold minersand providing employment opportunities

•Taking into account the greater expenses faced by informal gold miners to equipthemselves, they should be assisted in getting simple, cheap and easy-to-use equipment and technology, and it should be realized via micro-financing relations or small loans and leasing;Since one of important issues that informal gold miners face is difficulty related to selling and storing extracted gold, the possibilities of creating new ways of selling and purchasing gold in the local area (i.e. to operate traveling banks and to grant rights to local banks to purchase and trade gold) should be studied and assistance should be rendered for reducing financial risks;

Encouraging employment of informal gold minersand providing employment opportunities

Focusing on the will and desire of informal miners to engage in other labor, work places suitable for their profession and experience should be created, they should be involved in training to provide experience and skills other than mining gold, advice should be given to them, and activities for providing them with handbooks and recommendation materials should be organized;

Encouraging employment of informal gold minersand providing employment opportunities

The activities of local administration, police and civil society organizations should be united and their efforts for eradicating discrimination and harassment at workplaces of informal gold miners should be encouraged;

Improving occupational safety and hygiene

practical activities should be conducted in the following directions: (i) source (type of sophisticated equipment and tools used); (ii) transfer means (to reduce risks on a person during work progress and transfer);(iii) gold mining individuals. Government agencies,NGOs entities, staffs, volunteers and individuals should be involved in this training.

Improving occupational safety and hygiene

Considering the dangers, risks and hazards of informal gold mining activities to informal gold miners, possibilities to have access to regular health check-ups not less than 2 times a year should be ensured and this activity should commence immediately;

Improving occupational safety and hygiene

Taking insufficient and inadequate knowledge, experience and attitudes of informal gold miners towards labor hygiene into account, activities to provide training, professional assistance, services and advice via professional organizations, volunteers, and public health staff should be organized;

Improving occupational safety and hygiene

Provisions prohibiting usage and trade of poisonous and dangerous substances (such as mercury, explosive substances, etc.) in gold mining activities should be incorporated in the newly developed Law on Informal Gold miners in order to halt usage of such substances by informal gold miners; and

Improving occupational safety and hygiene

Paying attention to the great number of occupational diseases and industrial accidents among informal gold miners, provisions for local administration and authorities, as well as labor inspectors, to register such matters, identify causes and outcomes and methods of prevention should be reflected in the draft of the newly developed Law on InformalGold miners;

Providing informal gold miners with health and social services

Possibilities for involving informal gold miners in pension and benefits for occupationa illnesses and diseases should be created by recording occupational diseases and industrial accidents related to informal gold mining;

Providing informal gold miners with health and social services

By registering informal gold miners as temporary or permanent resident of a local area, the possibilities for involving them in social insurance, medical services and aid, and social care services can be created, the necessary budget should be allocated to local hospital and rights of spending should be ensured as well;

Providing informal gold miners with health and social services

Jointly with professional organizations, activities of preventive check-ups, testing, medical training and promotion should be organized among informal gold miners;

Providing informal gold miners with health and social services

Emergency aid and proper medical services should be rendered to family members of informal gold miners, especially under age children, elderly and pregnant women;

Influencing the cultural and basic needs

Informal gold miners should be provided with portable hygienic utilities and hot water services in order to prevent health risks and hazards to the environment;

Influencing the cultural and basic needs

Considering that informal gold miners live and work with preschool and school age children, children should be prevented from dropping out of school and ger-kindergartens and ger-schools should be operated in order to ensure learning and studying conditions for children; and

Influencing the cultural and basic needs

As for informal gold miners, possibilities for improving themselves as individuals are limited and due to weak and difficult socializing between people, it is common among them to feel down, to fear and to feel emotionally uncomfortable. Therefore, psychological services should be rendered to them.