Artisanal Gold Council team attending PDAC conference to highlight the importance of artisanal gold mining sector to jobs and environment, and to explain planetGOLD projects

Artisanal Gold Council Executive Director Dr. Kevin Telmer led a team from AGC’s Victoria, B.C., headquarters to represent the Artisanal Mining sector at PDAC, the world-leading mineral exploration and mining convention in Toronto, Canada.

At the convention, which runs from June 13-15 for in-person attendees (June 28-29 online), AGC staff hosted a booth where they distributed a wide range of print materials highlighting the importance of the artisanal mining sector to developing countries and their people, and explaining the planetGOLD project’s ambitions through its various AGSM projects – AGC executes several planetGOLD projects. They also showed videos, including a 360 degree interactive installation from planetGOLD projects that allows attendees to explore several ongoing project sites.

Dr. Telmer said AGC was also at the convention in order to ensure that PDAC attendees understood the significance of the artisanal and small scale gold mining sector (ASGM) in the overall gold mining sector’s global footprint (about 20% of gold production annually).

He added that there was also an economic reason behind AGC’s presence at the conference.

“We also want to pitch the idea that the Artisanal Gold mining sector is a viable business opportunity,” he said. “We want to attract a lot of capital into the sector to raise it to the next level. We can’t improve the sector without first bringing in the money. And with the right management and expertise, it is a very viable business, and one that’s both profitable and rich in ESG content.”

The planetGOLD portfolio of projects is funded by the Global Environment Facility and administered by the United Nations Environment Programme and United Nations Industrial Development Organization. The AGC executes three of the eight country projects for planetGOLD — those in the Philippines, Mongolia and Burkina Faso — and executes  access to the finance component of the umbrella global project in the other five countries, Kenya, Indonesia, Peru, Colombia, Guyana, and Ecuador.

The AGC team also included Peru and Suriname Project Manager Tegan Holmes, MPH, International Finance Specialist Scott Gryba, P.Eng., MBA, and Communications Officer Patrick Dunne, MA.

During the convention, AGC staff will explain the AGC’s mission, the fundamental importance of building a financial and investment system that supports the development of the artisanal mining sector and how the planetGOLD programme is creating a platform that supports this approach. Ultimately the AGC together with the planetGold programme hope to make gold mining safer, cleaner, and more profitable for artisanal and small-scale gold miners around the world.