Zambia is advancing resource-driven development by scaling-up copper production whilst also seeking to exploit other mineral reserves, including gemstones, cobalt, manganese, and gold. Strengthening the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) subsector has been identified as a strategy to achieve this goal. This policy brief analyses the potential of Zambia’s ASM policy framework to support sustainable development objectives. It highlights that Zambia has developed a set of policies that are generally supportive of ASM and compatible with most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the policy framework also exhibits biases, missed opportunities, and trade-offs. These include biases towards large-scale mining and artisanal and small-scale gold mining; the failure to directly link ASM with agriculture; and an overemphasis on economic growth compared to livelihood support. At the same time, gaps between policy aspirations and practice persist. The key recommendations are as follows: to develop a dedicated ASM policy; to identify and capitalise on linkages between ASM and agriculture; to address gender and environmental issues through targeted interventions and supportive funding; to incentivise formalisation by guaranteeing bottom-up support to licensed ASM miners; and to strengthen ASM governance and institutional capacity through accessible licensing and procedural de-centralisation.
Kaczmarska et al. (2025) studied this question.