Artisanal Gold Mining: A New Frontier in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone?
认为，正规化的小规模黄金开采业可以缓解塞拉利昂日益严重的青年危机，为失业青年提供直接就业和下游经济活动，但需要政策制定者转变观念，不再将黄金开采与助长内战的钻石开采等同看待。
Abstract This paper argues that a formalised small-scale gold mining sector could ameliorate Sierra Leone's emerging ‘crisis of youth’. Burgeoning pockets of unemployed young men now found scattered throughout the country, the mobilisation of whom proved instrumental in prolonging civil war in the 1990s, have fuelled fresh concerns about renewed violence. If supported, small-scale gold mining could provide immediate economic relief in the form of direct employment and downstream activities. Its promotion, however, is contingent upon a radical change in mindset in policymaking circles. Gold mining continues to be associated with diamond mining, an industry which perpetuated the country's civil war.