| Overview : The ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme is a €11,1 million capacity building program to support the management of the Development Minerals across Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific. The program is an initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, financed by the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and implemented by UNDP. The Programme will strengthen the capacity of Artisanal small-scale mining enterprises (ASMEs) operating in member countries of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS). The ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme is implemented in Zambia by United Nations Development Programme in collaboration with Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development. The project aims to enable ASMEs in the Development Minerals sector to achieve better livelihoods through higher employment and incomes from their mining operations. Development Minerals are crucial for domestic development and structural transformation and they include industrial minerals, like gypsum, clay, feldspar, flourspar and salt, construction materials, like sand and gravel, dimension stones, like marble and granite, and semi-precious stones, like amethyst, beryl, garnet and tourmaline. Development Minerals are non-metallic and non-energy minerals, and therefore they have a different risk profile to that which is common to the remainder of the mining sector. In comparison to the metals sector, Development Minerals have closer links with the local economy, and have the potential to generate more local jobs, with a greater impact on poverty reduction. This is partly because the sector is dominated by small and medium scale domestic businesses. Small-scale mining has enormous economic potential in Zambia because of large resources of gemstones, which have the scope to complement large-scale commercial mining of base metals. In 2017, the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development estimated that ASM directly employs more than 40 million people whilst equally supporting the livelihoods of over 150 million people across 80 countries worldwide. In terms of economic significance, small-scale mining in Zambia provides employment for more than 30,000[1] people most of whom live in remote rural areas. Minerals extracted include Development Minerals, manganese, gold, copper and Tin. The Zambian small-scale mining sector provides an enormous reservoir for the future diversification and growth of mining in the country. The challenges confronting small-scale mining in Zambia include lack of technical and business expertise amongst small-scale miners, inaccessibility of investment capital and essential mining equipment, poor mining methods and poor market access. These constraints result not in lost incomes and but which also pose serious dangers to the environment health and safety of miners and host communities. The informal ASMEs tend to be more subject to gender based discrimination and exploitation than in formalized mining operations |
