Overview
South Sudan is known as an important oil producer but the country is also believed to have significant mineral resources, though very little formal exploration has been carried out since the Second World War. The government is extremely interested in, and active in, promoting investment in exploration and the development of mining projects.
According to all mining communities met as part of this research as well as the geologists who were part of the team, artisanal and small-scale gold mining in South Sudan dates back to colonial times. Artisanal gold mining, and also smallscale mining using some machinery, takes place in a number of areas spreading from Western Bahr el-Ghazal (WBeG), Western Equatoria State (WES), CES and EES to Jonglei and even Upper Nile State (UNS). With the new legal framework for mining passed into law in 2012, all mining without a licence became illegal, including artisanal mining.
Artisanal gold mining is an activity that contributes to securing the livelihoods of rural families. Development actors, including NGOs, bi- and multilateral development institutions and governmental departments, are mostly ignorant of the ongoing artisanal mining activities. Apart from some press articles there is no literature available on artisanal mining, even though it has existed for so long.
No serious exploration for large-scale mining was possible for six decades because of the wars. However, in 2005 exploration re-started and today there is sufficient information to confirm considerable potential for large-scale mining in South Sudan. Looking at the existing infrastructure in the country it might be concluded that it could still take years before any major investment to take place. However, the Kibali gold mine in neighbouring DRC shows that if a deposit is important enough the investors will find ways and means to develop the mine, even in a difficult environment.
The Mining Act was adopted in 2012 and Mining Regulation swere signed in March 2015. The government has scaled up efforts to organize the sector by putting substantial efforts into the promotion and regularization of large-scale mining.
There are numerous challenges surrounding artisanal, small-scale and large-scale mining. High priority should be given to looking specifically into artisanal mining as well as community-related aspects of small- and large-scale mining. Even with the mining regulations in place a number of aspects need to be further refined at national, state and local levels. Communities should have a say when regulations are being implemented and particular aspects of them are being refined in order to ensure that mining will contribute to development in the communities.
The assessment, the present report, and the validation meeting that took place in December 2015 are intended to be a meaningful contribution to this process: attention needs to be focused on communities and artisanal miners.