Towards responsible gold sourcing?: Lessons and limitations of certification schemes for artisanal and small scale gold mining (ASGM) in Peru

In the last two decades, the growing demand for gold has fueled concerns about the links of this industry with human rights abuse, armed conflicts, environmental degradation, inequality reproduction, among other structural problems. To assure the conditions in which mineral exploitation and production occurs, private and public actors have moved towards governance instruments that endorse responsible gold sourcing. Certification schemes for artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) emerged as part of this movement, promoting formal, cleaner, and safer extraction practices in mining communities in exchange for an economic prime. However, since their creation over a decade ago, these schemes have struggled to scale up. Moreover, early scholarship work also suggests that they prioritize mineral tracing from conflict-free areas and benefit well-established miners over artisanal producers (Hilson, Hilson, & McQuilken, 2016). This project examines how ASGM certification schemes play out in practice and the extent to which they influence responsible sourcing in a widely informal global value chain such as gold. To achieve this, it focuses on Peru’s ASGM sector.