The Government of Uzbekistan has officially legalized artisanal gold mining, according to Podrobno.uz.
Uzbek president last year signed a decree on measures to create conditions for artisanal gold mining in the country. Artisanal gold mining will become legal in Uzbekistan beginning on March 1, 2019.
Licenses for artisanal gold mining will be granted by the State Committee on Geology and Mineral Resources for the period of three years.
The Government will be endorsing the territories permitted for artisanal gold mining every year based on proposals by the State Committee on Geology and Mineral Resources.
Meanwhile, Tajikistan is also thinking of legitimizing artisanal and small-scale gold mining.
Recall, the Ministry of Finance of Tajikistan worked out a document on the artisanal and small-scale gold mining in July 2017.
The document, in particular, stipulates that citizens of Tajikistan will be able to extract gold in territories, which are not under the jurisdiction of the gold mining companies.
For this, they will have to get license from the Ministry of Finance. The license will be granted for production of gold in certain territories that do not belong to physical and legal entities.
They will be able to sell their gold to the state financial institutions and the price for gold that will be bought from the population will be set by the Ministry of Finance.
In January last year, the Ministry of Finance worked out a draft resolution on providing permission for individual production of alluvial gold.
If the document is approved, Tajik nationals will have an opportunity to produce alluvial gold along river banks.
Artisanal and Small-scale mining (ASM) refers to informal mining activities carried out using low technology or with minimal machinery. The term Artisanal and Small-scale Mining broadly refers to mining practiced by individuals, groups or communities often informally and in developing nations.
