As this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba places the theme of Stronger together: Progress through partnerships, at the centre of its agenda, mining advisory firm Levin Sources believes the coming mining cycle could mark a structural shift in how African governments, financiers and mine operators recognise and integrate artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) into responsible mineral supply chains.

Speaking to Mining Weekly ahead of the Cape Town gathering, Levin Sources founder and CEO Estelle Levin-Nally, senior adviser Dr Jose Diemel and adviser Jara Bakx report that long-term cooperation, affordable finance and evidence-based regulatory reform could enable ASM communities to participate more meaningfully in Africa’s critical-minerals future.

Levin-Nally considers persistent structural barriers to be the most significant constraint on ASM upliftment and legitimacy.

“Inadequate and unenforced regulatory regimes keep millions of artisanal miners in the shadows, as without the ability to demonstrate traceability and risk management, ASM is often seen as too risky for responsible buyers,” she says, citing legal uncertainty, limited technical support and weak access to finance as drivers of informality.

This lack of market recognition prevents responsible actors from proving their credibility.

However, Levin Sources has tracked clear signals of change where blended public-private finance is deployed early in the value chain to derisk engagement.



From the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, to Tanzania and Côte d’Ivoire, Levin Sources observes encouraging progress in innovative corporate structures and cooperations that improve bankability and offtake prospects for ASM enterprises.

In this regard, Bakx emphasises that scaling must include those historically excluded from mining economies, particularly women.

“If ASM formalisation leaves out the most vulnerable, it isn’t responsible transformation, it’s selective progress that reinforces exclusion,” she says.

Framework for Partnership-Led Reform

Levin-Nally argues that durable reform increasingly originates not from regulation alone, but from strategic cooperation between miners, governments, financiers and minerals processors.

“The most effective ASM solutions today are being built through coalitions that share risk, profit and responsibility,” she states.

Levin Sources’ own Cooperation Pathway for Sustainable Minerals Value Chains framework was developed to guide governments and industry on how far and how deeply partnerships should integrate.

“[The framework] helps stakeholders move from transactional relationships to long-range development strategies,” explains Levin-Nally, noting its application in regions where ASM and large-scale mining (LSM) intersect.

Across West and Central Africa, new partnership frameworks are being tested at scale, with Bakx highlighting the Multistakeholder Partnership for Sustainable and Responsible Small-Scale Mining (MSPI), which is piloting innovation in ASM and LSM engagement in Côte d’Ivoire alongside gold mining companies Perseus and Allied Gold.

The MSPI was founded by international development organisation the World Bank, international gold trade organisation the World Gold Council, and the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development.