Resources Policy 64 (2019) 101505 Available online 27 September 2019 0301-4207/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Artisanal gold supply chain: Measures from the Ecuadorian Government Maxim J. Thomas, Marcello M. Veiga * , Bruce G. Marshall, W. Scott Dunbar Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada 1. Introduction The defnition of artisanal and small-scale mining combines two different terms that are not necessarily identical: small and artisanal. The term artisanal mining became known to the public in the 1990s as reference to a group of individuals that extract and process ores and non- metallic minerals using rudimentary methods, while “small-scale” mining refers only to the size of the operation and does not refect the sophistication of the process (Veiga, 1997; Veiga and Baker, 2004; Marshall and Veiga, 2017). Furthermore, legislation in developing countries and particularly in Latin America use the size of the operation and not the type of techniques to characterize artisanal miners. When limiting an operation by its size, the laws do not take into consideration the environmental impacts associated with artisanal mining. In reality, miners faced with ineffcient gold recoveries (e.g. <30%) only think about increasing production, which creates more environmental im- pacts, instead of adopting better and cleaner techniques to potentially extract over 90% of the gold from their ores. The InterGovernmental Forum (IGF-Intergovernmental Forum, 2018) recently highlighted that the number of artisanal miners around the world in developing countries has now surpassed 40.5 million. The Artisanal and Small-scale Mining Knowledge Sharing Archive (2018) estimated that the current number of people directly involved in arti- sanal mining operations could be approximately 43.5 million, while Buxton (2013) has stated that over 100 million individuals worldwide depend on artisanal mining for sustaining their livelihoods. Due to the high value of gold (US $1516/oz, as of September 12, 2019), it has been the most sought-after mineral by artisanal miners in rural regions of the world for decades (Hilson, 2002). Although the number of artisanal gold miners (AGM) worldwide has not been accurately assessed, Seccatore et al. (2014) estimated that approximately 16 million individuals in more than 70 countries annually produce between 380 and 450 tonnes of gold, which represents between 20 and 30% of all global Au pro- duction (Swain et al., 2007; Telmer and Veiga, 2008). Similar to most developing countries with a signifcant artisanal gold mining sector, Ecuador has been attempting to fnd ways through legislation and other initiatives to address the challenges associated with informality and the illicit trade of illegal gold, as well as reduce the environmental impacts caused by mercury use. Not only does infor- mality in the gold trade squander attempts by government institutions to manage mineral resources and support technological transfer to cleaner practices, but signifcant amounts of taxable revenues are lost to illegal exports. In many African countries, offcial production is now being dwarfed by unoffcial production, which results in vast quantities of gold being smuggled from the continent routinely by criminal organizations, causing social and environmental repercussions in its wake (Lewis et al., 2019). Although initiatives such as The Alliance for Responsible Min- ing’s Fairtrade and Fairmined certifed gold have helped to raise awareness about alternatives to conventional trade and increase market access for producers in both Latin America and Africa, the informality of local gold markets and a lack of trust regarding outside intervention have thwarted signifcant expansions of these programs (Childs, 2014). The focus of the current research was to investigate Ecuador’s gold supply chain through analysis of the CBE’s (Central Bank of Ecuador) Gold Purchase Program (GPP), which is a novel mechanism introduced by the Ecuadorian government to acquire and register formal gold sales from the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector. By gathering feld data from the ASGM sector and government institutions, the strengths and weaknesses of the current program were evaluated, leading to the provision of recommendations to try and improve the process. 2. The Central Bank of Ecuador Gold Purchase Program A number of mining regulations have been implemented by the Ecuadorian Government to try and manage the informality of the arti- sanal gold mining sector (AGM), including a recent law prohibiting the use of mercury (Ley de Mineria, 2018), but the number of AGM miners pursuing the activity is still increasing, due to few other available eco- nomic alternatives. Gold production in the country has been under-reported, due to illegal production and illicit trade out of the country (Torres, 2015), which represents losses of millions of dollars in tax revenue. As an effort to regulate the gold supply chain coming from artisanal miners and better document gold production in the country, * Corresponding author. E-mail address: veiga@mining.ubc.ca (M.M. Veiga). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Resources Policy journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/resourpol https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2019.101505 Received 18 June 2019; Received in revised form 19 September 2019; Accepted 19 September 2019