Empowering local capacity: how the Artisanal Gold Council is bridging international engineering and Zambian Academia for mercury-free mining.

Building a sustainable, mercury-free future forArtisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) requires more than supplyingmachinery; it demands creating local technical capacity so mining communitiescan adapt, maintain, and eventually manufacture their own equipment.

To advance this vision, the Artisanal Gold Council Zambia team recently completed a technology sourcing mission to Medellín, Colombia, visiting the facilities of Oro Sinú, a manufacturer specializing in gold processing equipment.

Testing prototypes and partnering with Academia

During the technical visit, the team finalized plansfor the procurement, testing, and installation of a helicoidal cone.Operating via gravity concentration, this unit recovers alluvial goldefficiently without requiring toxic chemicals such as mercury.

Reflecting on the mission, Abigail Mwailenge,Project Manager for the Artisanal Gold Council Zambia Project, highlighted thelong-term objective of bridging international factory design with localacademic institutions:

"We are in a factory in Oro Sinú where we are looking at different adaptable models that have been manufactured and engineered from scratch. We as the Artisanal Gold Council Zambia project will be partnering with this factory and with academia in Zambia, primarily with the University of Zambia, to explore models in which such equipment can be manufactured locally."

Frompilot plants to local manufacturing

Oncedelivered to Zambia, the helicoidal cone will be deployed in Mercury-FreeProcessing System (MFPS) pilot plants. These facilities will act asdemonstration and shared processing centers where local miners can process orecleanly and safely.

Crucially,the pilot plant will also serve as an educational foundation for local miners,fabricators, and researchers. As Abigail Mwailenge noted:

"We will be procuring a helicoidal cone, which will be the first prototype that the Artisanal Gold Council Zambia project is going to pilot and be able to pass the knowledge to miners who, with support from knowledge institutions and academia, will now start learning how to produce this equipment on their own."

By establishing a direct link between Orosinú’s manufacturing experience, the University of Zambia’s technical support, and local artisanal mining groups, the Artisanal Gold Council continues to foster sustainable, South-South technology transfer that empowers communities from the ground up.