900+ Miner Toolkits Delivered

$125 Miner Toolkits

According to World Bank and several other studies, 70-80% of all East African miners are artisanal, meaning they are mining on a small scale and without outside investment. Often, they use hand-me-down farming tools to do hard-rock mining, leaving them ill-equipped for safety and success. We want to equip them with the essential tools for self-protection and effectively reaching their goal: gemstones! 

About the Toolkits

IMG_2126

Toolkits Include

shovel
blasting tools
chisel
helmet
hammer

head light
pick axe
gloves
hand drill
sieve

Customization

Miner Toolkits are customized based on the individual needs of the mine and style of work.

900 & counting Toolkits Funded

Gem Legacy is committed to ensuring each toolkit is delivered to a miner at the highest level of need in East Africa. We work with local, 3rd party partners on the ground to analyze and assess the mines which would receive the most benefit from an investment of tools and equipment. All mines receiving toolkits do not have any outside access to funding or financial support.

FAQ

While statistics about East Africa specifically are limited, 75-80% of colored gemstones globally are mined by artisanal small scale miners, according to a study by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and supported by studies from World Bank, International Institute for Sustainable Development, and Colored Gemstones Working Group.

Because Gem Legacy is seeking out the lowest 20% of mining operations, we see most miners using extremely antiquated tools that are often secondhand farming tools. They are often so broken that they are not safe to be used. Gem Legacy Toolkits only include hand tools and so are only delivered to mines that are not using generators or powered tools.

We refer to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s definition, which originally applied to gold mining can also be applied to gemstones. “Formal or informal mining operations with predominantly simplified forms of exploration, extraction, processing, and transportation. ASM is normally low capital intensive and uses high labour intensive technology. “ASM” can include men and women working on an individual basis as well as those working in family groups, in partnership, or as members of cooperatives or other types of legal associations and enterprises involving hundreds or even thousands of miners. For example, it is common for work groups of 4–10 individuals, sometimes in family units, to share tasks at one single point of mineral extraction (e.g. excavating one tunnel). At the organisational level, groups of 30– 300 miners are common, extracting jointly one mineral deposit (e.g. working in different tunnels), and sometimes sharing processing facilities.”

Receive Updates About the Miners!

Keep in touch with the artisanal colored gemstone miners and their success after receiving toolkits!