The hybrid global gold regime: A perspective from the Peruvian ASGM sector

The Peruvian state currently classifies small-scale gold mining in Madre de Dios into three types (Wieland 2020): formal or legal gold mining2, which refers to mining activities that comply with the legal provisions es tablished by the state; illegal gold mining, which refers to mining activities in places where mining is officially forbidden (in so-called “no-go zones”); and informal gold mining carried out by miners who operate without the required legal permits in places where mining is not forbidden. Many miners who have been working for decades in areas closed off for mining are only recently invoking what they consider their consuetudinary right to mine and see themselves as informal and not illegal miners. In some cases, the Peruvian government has accepted this claim.