Implementation Organization : Mongolian Nature and Environment Consortium
Country : Mongolia
Project Area : Human development, sustainable mining and local sustainable development
NetRes : IGES
Duration of Project : 12 months
Status : Ongoing
Summary
Mongolia has over 100,000 informal miners, called Ninja Miners, working in gold fields and coal mines around the country. These miners live illegally, often times in dangerous locations with little access to health services or schools for children. Numerous human rights violations are incurred against the miners and their families. Children do not attend school and are forced to participate in labor intensive activities. The miners work with little regard for themselves or the environment; often using cyanide or mercury in unsafe ways. When a mine no longer produces, it is left open as a permanent scar upon the land. We propose to assist the Ninjas in three ways. First is to work with the government to support the miners in their activities by passing laws to legalize the miners and place them under the Government’s wing. Second is to provide the miners with training and medical care so they can care for themselves and their families; and lastly, is to provide training and support in proper use of chemicals and how to reclaim the mining areas to lessen the environmental impact the Ninja’s have on Mongolia. Also, we will train selected ninjas to encourage the formation of an NGO of ninjas to give them proper legal status, achieve economy of scale, and enable them to seek registration as local citizens and thereby gain voting rights, access to benefits and the right to send their children to local schools.
Dissemination of results will ensure that the unique experience and know-how gained will be transmitted to Government, local Government, international donors, NGOs and – most importantly – to thousands of ninjas.
Key Activities
1. Supporting the passage of law in the Mongolian Parliament for sustainable mining practices and support of ninja mining and support cooperation between the Ninja Miners, the Mongolian Government, and mining companies.
§ Encourage discussion and support of a law that is currently under discussion in the Parliament (‘Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Law’).
§ Facilitate discussion between Ninja Miners and mining companies who hold the current rights to areas where miners work.
§ Develop law and submit it to Parliament
2. Provide health and educational training.
§ Provide access to basic medical care.
§ Public awareness campaigns and trainings for miners and their families on common health issues, infectious diseases, and basic first-aid.
3. Provide training on mining practices and the use of chemicals.
§ Trainings on sustainable mining practices.
§ Trainings on the safe use and storage of toxic chemicals such as mercury and cyanide.
4. Provide training no sustainable environmental practices
§ Trainings on sustainable environmental development.
§ Trainings on and support for proper land and mine reclamation practices
5. Establish Ninja community NGO that helps to lead daily actitities of Ninjas
§ Form the Ninja community NGO
§ Training the core members of NGO in basic bisiness mangement , and additional training in geology , enviornemnt protection legislation and mineral processing
§ The Ninja community will be legally registered with Ministry of Judice by the MNEC
§ The management Committee of the NGO formed and assets( Techlogical books and education materials and relevant laws and procedures, business plan etc) will be transpered to the NGO
Contact Info
Dr. M. Badarch; Director Mongolian Nature and Environment Consortium
11th district, Sukhbaatar duureg, XI khoroolol, Erkhuu Street 7, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Office: (976) 11354272; Mobile: (976) 99-19- 9276
Fax: (976) 11354272
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