Paper short abstract:

Are African artisanal miners on balance gaining or losing? Does artisanal mining provide a viable economic livelihood? Seeking answers, this paper probes data on artisanal miners’ and resident mining settlement households’ material wellbeing in six gold & diamond mining settlements in Tanzania.

Paper long abstract:

Much of the literature on African artisanal mining focuses on the circumstances of impoverished miners whereas the popular image of artisanal miners through history has typically portrayed sensationalised boom and bust lifestyles. This paper, using recent qualitative interviews and quantitative survey six gold and diamond mining settlements in Tanzania, probes evidence of artisanal miners' and resident mining settlement households' material wellbeing. Beginning with a consideration of migrants' expectations of wealth during a mineral rush, the paper considers the demographics of surveyed households at the six sites, and their unfolding patterns of settlement and occupational change over time, against the background of the mining cycle and its effect on the evolution of the mining settlement. Looking at households' livelihood responses to post-rush mineral availability, the paper interrogates which households are experiencing economic stress as opposed to enrichment in such economically fluid circumstances. The aim is to contrast impoverishing and wealth-enhancing tendencies, their appearance and influence at different stages of the artisanal mining settlement development cycle and ultimately their impact on mining settlement household welfare generally