Report: Ecuador Workshop

Multi-stakeholder Workshop on Mine Tailings Management in Ecuador

By Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)

The workshop organised by UNDP Ecuador with EGP support on January 24, 2023, generated a multi-stakeholder discussion about mine waste and tailings management between the different actors operating in the sector – ranging from researchers, the Ministry of Mines and Energy’s policymakers, and the monitoring agency regulators (Geological and Energy Research Institute, IIGE). The workshop also helped identify national priority issues that can be addressed with continued multi-stakeholder dialogue and further support from UNDP, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and other international partners.

Key Messages

How to properly manage waste from mining operations is an issue of great concern worldwide, especially considering the growing demand for critical minerals that fuel the production of low-carbon technologies. In Ecuador, one of the most pressing challenges is to address waste from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM), which is a sector that provides the main source of livelihood for some 100,000 people across the country and mostly in remote and rural communities. Certain forms of ASGM have been carried out in Ecuador by ancestral and traditional communities since the Inca times.
While tailings and waste management in Large-Scale Mining (LSM) operations are regulated by the mandatory Environmental Management Plans (EMP), waste from informal and/or unregulated ASGM activities poses a significant and mounting threat to communities and the natural environment. Contamination from the illegal use of mercury poses a particular danger, affecting both ASGM communities themselves, as well as indigenous and traditional communities, by contaminating water courses and fish that are consumed. Mercury contamination may lead to severe health effects and even life-threatening consequences to current and future generations, as the metal is both persistent in the environment and may bioaccumulate in ecological food chains which means it may remain in the natural environment for centuries to come.
ASGM operations are often too small to individually count on the necessary technical, financial and administrative resources to be able to manage the waste that they generate in an acceptable manner. A possible solution to this dilemma is to encourage ASGM miners to cooperate and pool resources in larger groups and together invest in larger, cost-effective and communal treatment plants and waste management facilities. Such an approach has been tried in the Portovelo gold mining area of Ecuador, and it may provide relevant experiences and learning that may be applicable elsewhere.

Read the Learning Hub Report

Workshop Presentations

Mining Waste Management: Protecting the Environment and Maintaining the Safety of People (Spanish)

Håkan Tarras-Wahlberg, Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)

Mining Waste in ASM: A Special Challenge (Spanish)

Håkan Tarras-Wahlberg

Case Study on the Use of Mining Tailings from the Campanillas Concession in Zamora Chinchipe, Ecuador, as an Aggregate for the Production of Paving Stones (Spanish)

Luis Collahuazo, Geological and Energy Research Institute (IIGE)

Project on "Study for the Implementation of the Pilot Monitoring Centre for Tailings Deposits in Ecuador" (Spanish)

Jonathan Tobar, IIGE

Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in the Andean Countries: Meanings, Networks and Opportunities for Clean Development (Spanish)

Gisselle Vila Benites, Clark University, USA, and Centre for the Study of Mining and Sustainability, Universidad del Pacifico, Peru

The Environmental Governance Programme: Integrating Environment and Human Rights into Mining Governance (Spanish)

Malin Larsson, Project Manager, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)

The EGP is a global programme jointly implemented by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and UNDP since 2014. The programme supports resource-rich countries in integrating environment and human rights into the governance of the mining sector. Programme countries include Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mongolia, Namibia, Peru, and Zambia.