“Fair Tantalum Liberia“
Responsible Artisanal Mining
A Show Case for a fair, responsible and social supply chain of raw-material
Liberia is well known for its mineral wealth; gold, diamond and iron ore mining has been carried out for the last 80-100 years. In the last century until the civil war the Bong Iron Ore Mine (operated by Thyssen Krupp) was one of the largest operations in the world. The government issues Kimberly Process (KP) Origin Certificates, which enable the legal export of rough diamonds to other KP member countries.
Artisanal mining (ASM), predominantly of gold and diamonds, can be found in Liberia in various regions, often in remote and inaccessible forest areas. Often, the artisanal miners operate illegally and are controlled by obscure business setups which are untransparent and uncontrolled. The Liberian Government currently lacks the necessary resources or capacity to monitor mining activities. We therefore intend to enhance those capacities by active capacity building.