Illegal mining

Illegal mining is mining activity that is undertaken without state permission. Illegal mining is the extraction of precious metals/rocks without following the proper procedures to participate in legal mining activity. These procedures include permits and licenses for exploration of the land, mining and transportation,  as well as safety regulations concerning miners and other workers.

Unauthorized mining can be a subsistence activity, as is the case with artisanal mining, or it can belong to large-scale organized crime, spearheaded by illegal mining syndicates. On an international level, approximately 80 percent of small-scale mining operations can be categorized as illegal. Despite strategic developments towards "responsible mining," even big companies can be involved in illegal mineral digging and extraction, if only on the financing side.

Large-scale mining operations are owned by large companies and use advanced technology to extract metals such as open-pit mining. Artisanal small-scale mining operations are often labour-intensive because miners do not tend to use machinery to extract the metals. Informal mining occurs when artisanal small-scale mining operations proceed without the proper legal licenses.

These operations are still illegal but it is not an indictable offence in the same manner as illegal mining operations organized by criminal groups. Criminally organized illegal mining are often large-scale operations that violate all applicable laws. Organized crime groups lead and control illegal mining activity in extremely rural areas where the state does not have full jurisdiction over the land. Corruption in privately owned large-scale mining and artisanal small-scale mining operations occurs because the operations delegate their power to local authorities.