====== Sierra Leone ======

==== ASM Population: 350,000 ====
Total and Min/max: Published estimates and official figures coincide, indicating at least 300,000 ASM miners. Supposedly, these numbers refer mainly to gold and diamond mining and do not include ASM on the //"some coltan and zircon"// or development minerals. To compensate, it appears reasonable to estimate a range of **300-400,000** with an average at **350,000**.\\
Female participation: no data. estimated in 20% (higher in gold mining, lower in diamond mining) -> **70,000** \\
Gold: Half of 300,000 -> **150,000** \\
 

==== Data sources for estimation ====

===2018: > 300,000 ===
Government of Sierra Leone: Artisanal Mining Policy for Sierra Leone (http://www.nma.gov.sl/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Artisanal-Mining-Policy-for-Sierra-Leone.pdf): \\
  Artisanal mining is ongoing in more than half of the country’s 190 Chiefdoms. Artisanal mining is primarily for diamonds and gold although some coltan and zircon are mined. ... Alluvial diamond deposits are depleting; artisanal miners experience diminishing returns as they nonetheless continue to mine areas in hope of finding diamonds. Many have shifted to gold mining. Also, the emerging motor-cycle taxi business is attracting young men away from artisanal mining. Although no empirical data on the number of people involved in artisanal mining has been published, it is estimated that artisanal mining and related activities provides livelihood support to **at least 300,000** Sierra Leoneans and that upwards of 10% of Sierra Leoneans are impacted by artisanal diamond mining operations."
 
===2018: 200,000 ===
(ARM-18), Table Annex 3: 200,000\\
Quoting Hilson & Hilson (2015): https://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Hilson-Hilson-2015-Working-Paper.pdf


===2018: 300,000 ===
(IGF-18): Table 3
  Directly working in ASM: 300,000
  Estimated number of dependents: 1,800,000
  Main Minerals: Gold, Diamonds

===2016: 300,000 ===
(HIL-16): 
  Directly working in ASM: 300,000
  Estimated number of dependents: 1,800,000

===2014: 437,000 ===
(UBC-14): Gold-only data produced by statistic modelling: \\
  Expected ASM population: 437,000 
  Estimated ASM gold production: 3.5 t/a

===2011: > 120,000 ===
Cartier, Bürge 2011 - Agriculture and Artisanal Gold Mining: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254456911_Agriculture_and_artisanal_gold_mining_in_Sierra_Leone_Alternatives_or_complements : //"Bermúdez-Lugo (2010) estimated that there are 120,000 diamond and gold artisanal miners in Sierra Leone; but in reality, this figure is much larger."//

===1999: 35,000 ===
(ILO-99): Employment: 30,000 - 40,000\\
Number of mines: n/a \\
Illegal mines: n/a \\
\\

==== Publications ====
---- struct table ----
schema: biblio
cols: Reference, Year, Citation, Archived Copy, Link
sort: ^Year
csv: 0
filter : Countries = Sierra Leone
----

==== Further Materials ====
Videos: \\
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL91CF7335E6F97A63 \\
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Articles: \\
http://www.nma.gov.sl/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Artisanal-Mining-Policy-for-Sierra-Leone.pdf \\
https://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Hilson-Hilson-2015-Working-Paper.pdf \\
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254456911_Agriculture_and_artisanal_gold_mining_in_Sierra_Leone_Alternatives_or_complements \\
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==== Data section ====