MineralsReady is a government-led digital public service for responsible artisanal and small-scale mining: one governed platform, a field app for miners, traders and site holders, and a live dashboard for the regulators who oversee them.
The platform supports statutory authority with better data and clearer records. It does not replace it.
People directly employed in artisanal & small-scale mining worldwide
Countries where ASM is a leading rural, non-farm employer
Module families covering safety, environment, geology and compliance
From inception to institutional handover, local team to local team
A mobile app for the field and a dashboard for the regulator, sharing one governed content base. What a miner completes, a regulator can see; what a regulator approves, a miner can act on.
For miners, site holders, traders, graders and trainees, built offline-first for remote sites.
For ministries, agencies, inspectors and district offices, built for oversight at scale.
Licence readiness means a licence confirms more than submitted forms and fees — it confirms that the applicant has completed country-specific learning and passed a regulator-approved assessment. The government remains the sole issuer of licences throughout.
Standards arrive at the mine face as paperwork addressed to those least equipped to satisfy it. Six gaps explain why, and each maps to a function the platform performs.
Guidance sits across institutions and documents, hard to read and apply on site.
Miners, traders and small operators rarely reach formal, practical training.
Safety and environmental hazards stay high where upskilling is inconsistent.
Agencies lack tools to verify readiness at scale or monitor remote activity.
Buyers and partners increasingly expect official, verifiable compliance signals.
The constraint is not unwillingness, it is a reachable route to proving practice.
Eight module families, adapted to national law, local realities, literacy and language, each delivered as short, completable units.
PPE, hazard ID, safe handling, incident and emergency response.
Water, waste, mercury-risk awareness, erosion control, rehabilitation.
Local deposits, mineral ID, site maps, sampling, geology–safety links.
Documentation standards, site discipline, grievance handling.
Risk screening, chain-of-custody, KYC basics, sourcing expectations.
Searchable national rules and forms in plain-language summaries.
Anti-bribery, respectful workplace, community relations.
Document, photo and video upload; incident and checklist submission.
A 12-month, overlapping implementation. Co-design, build, localisation and capacity transfer run in parallel to compress the schedule. Each phase produces a decision point for the Steering Group before the next begins.
Steering group, pilot scope, legal alignment, content priorities.
Iterative content, app and dashboard build, data governance.
Selected cohorts use learning, assessment and reporting; trained trainers.
Analyse use data and feedback; adjust content and thresholds.
Scaling model, train-the-trainer, communications, ownership transfer.
Ownership sits with government from day one. Delivery and evaluation are kept apart by design, so evidence on what works is generated independently of the party responsible for results.
Chaired by the lead government agency, with ministries, agencies, training institutions and community representation. Confirms scope, owns decisions, validates milestones.
Defined review cycles, version control and alignment with national and international legal frameworks. Field observations feed back into improved modules.
Monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) is delivered by a partner with no implementation role, reporting findings directly to the Steering Group.
Only what is needed for training completion and licence readiness is collected, under access rules the government sets.
Confirmed roles held apart so responsibility is legible to government and funders. A local IT team is trained from early in the programme and assumes long-term ownership at handover.
International Project Lead: governance architecture, consortium orchestration, government and donor coordination, senior content supervision.
MEAL & Evidence Partner: independent monitoring, evaluation and learning, baseline, reporting QA and doctoral research integration. No implementation role.
App build & remote support: architecture, mobile app and dashboard build, AI integration, QA, security, technical handover.
Accessibility & media: African-language adaptation, plain-language localisation, AI integration.
MineralsReady is designed alongside a planned National Minerals College, so digital readiness and accredited practical skills reinforce each other as one government-led pathway.
Practical digital learning, verification and compliance at the point of work.
Nationally recognised technical qualifications, from rough evaluation to cutting and refining.
More skilled jobs, a credible responsible minerals industry, more value retained in country.
Only what is needed for training completion and licence readiness is collected.
Data serves training, documentation and regulatory processes defined by national policy.
Learners, trainers and regulators hold role-based access to relevant information only.
The platform documents readiness; it is not designed for personal tracking.
Stored and retained under national data-protection and regulatory requirements.
Hosting and ownership arrangements confirmed with government before deployment.
A short scoping conversation confirms the lead agency, pilot geography, and the first content priorities, to finalise the full project scope before any commitment.
In partnership with Aquitas (Switzerland) Ltd., MEAL & Evidence Partner — www.aquitasconsulting.com