These miners often do not fully benefit from higher world prices because they usually live in remote areas where one buyer dominates the market, and they cannot afford to stockpile.

"The tragedy in all this is that the smaller miner is not being lifted out of poverty," said Paul Hollesen, vice president of environment and community affairs at AngloGold Ashanti, the world's third largest gold producer. "It is the financier and the chain of middle people who are involved who are making the money," he said. Industry officials say the middlemen can include tribal chiefs or anyone with capital to invest in equipment.

The miners, though, are the ones taking the risks.

And old mining is particularly dangerous to people and the land because mercury, a toxic heavy metal, is often used to wash ore in fresh water streams which also provide water for surrounding communities.

In the long run, the solution will have to come through land sharing programmes in conjunction with regulation of small-scale miners. But how exactly this will be implemented is far from clear.

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