Chile

ASM Population: 70,000

Recent data (CHL-2021a) indicates 50,000 direct and indirect workers in small mining (SM), plus a variable number (11,500 - 50,000) of artisanal miners (AM). This suggests a total of approx. 70,000
Min/max: Taking the 50,000 SM as basis, with a variation of 10-50,000 AM, a range of 60-100,000 can be indicated.
Female participation: No data. Could be potentially 20% → 14,000
Gold: In direct employment 1000/16000 is gold. Extrapolating to 70,000 results in 4,500

Data sources for estimation

2021: 17,000

(CHL-2021a):

En el caso de Chile, y según las estimaciones de Sernageomin y Cochilco, la pequeña minería genera en torno a los 50.000 empleos directos e indirectos (subcontratos). (p.24)
Grafico 4: empleo directo: 15,000 Cu, 1,000 Au+Ag in 2019 (p.25)
La minería artesanal, si bien se desarrolla en todo el país, se concentra principalmente en la III y IV Región. Hay estimaciones variables respecto al tamaño de la minería artesanal. Mideplan (1995), estimaba en 11.500 trabajadores el universo. Otras estimaciones del universo de la minería artesanal sitúan al sector en el orden de 27.000 trabajadores, llegando en períodos de crisis de otros sectores, a más de 50.000 mineros. (p.31)

2014: 17,000

(UBC-14): Gold-only data produced by statistic modelling:

Expected ASM population: 17,000 
Estimated ASM gold production: 5.5 t/a

1999: 9,000

(ILO-99): Employment: 6,000 - 12,000
Number of mines: 7,000
Illegal mines: +/- 20%

Publications

ReferenceYearCitationArchived CopyLink
CHL-2021a2021Meller, P., Meller, A. (2021):La Empresa Nacional de Minería (ENAMI) de Chile. Modelo y buenas prácticas para promover la sostenibilidad de la minería pequeña y artesanal en la región andina. CEPAL, BGR, Santiago.chl-2021a.pdfrepositorio.cepal.org/…
ARM-182018Barreto, M.L.,Schein, P., Hinton, J., Hruschka, F. (2018): The Impact of Small-Scale Mining Operations on Economies and Livelihoods in Low- to Middle-Income Countries. ARM, Envigado, PACT, Westcombe.arm-18.pdfresponsiblemines.org/…
IGF-182018IGF (2018): Global Trends in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM): A review of key numbers and issues. IIED/IISD, London, Winnipeg.igf-18.pdfiisd.org/…
GMA-182018UNEP (2018): Global Mercury Assessment 2018. Technical Background Report E-Annex. Chapter 3.2. UNEP, Geneva.gma-18.pdfwedocs.unep.org/…
UBC-142014Seccatore, J., Veiga, M., et al. (Univ. of British Columbia - UBC) (2014): An estimation of the artisanal small-scale production of gold in the world. Scitotenv. 496.ubc-14.pdfdoi.org/…
ILO-991999Jennings, N. (1999): Social and labour issues in small-scale mines. Report for discussion at the Tripartite Meeting on Social and Labour Issues in Small-scale Mines. ILO, Geneva.ilo-99.pdfilo.org/…

Further Materials

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ASM DATA - Country Database Record
Country CodeCHL
CountryChile
ASM StatusExisting (data assessed)
Country Count1
Data year2021
Publ. year2021
ASM Miners70,000
- gold4 ,500
Data curation extrapolated
Inc. DevMinno
- min.60,000
- max.100,000
- female14 ,000
ASM Commoditiescopper, gold