Artisanal and small-scale gold mining

Under Article 7, Parties whose artisanal and small‑scale gold mining is more than insignificant and who have notified the Secretariat must develop and implement National Action Plans (NAPs) to reduce, and where feasible, eliminate the use of mercury in ASGM. COP‑6, in decision MC‑6/8, agreed on several intersessional activities to support this work ahead of COP‑7.

During the 2026–2027 intersessional period, work will include:

• Submission of ASGM National Action Plans (NAPs) 
  Parties whose NAP submission deadlines have passed or are upcoming are requested to submit their plans to the Secretariat in accordance with Article 7 (paragraph 3).
• Review of the implementation of Article 7 
  Parties that have submitted NAPs are called upon to review progress and include this information in their national reports under Article 21, using the reporting template contained in annex 7 to the amended guidance (MC/COP.6/7/Add.1). The next short national report is due on 31 December 2027.
• Use of the provisional guide on the effective engagement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities 
  Parties developing, implementing or reviewing their NAPs are invited to make use of the Provisional guide on the effective engagement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (UNEP/MC/COP.6/INF/11) and to provide feedback to the Secretariat on their experience with its use.
• Submission of information on supply‑chain transparency 
  Parties and relevant stakeholders are invited to submit information on comparative experiences with supply‑chain transparency and certification and how these may help reduce mercury use in ASGM and strengthen accountability of buyers and intermediaries. The Secretariat will issue a dedicated call for submissions.
• Voluntary contributions to the Special Trust Fund 
  Parties, other governments and stakeholders in a position to do so are invited to provide financial or in‑kind contributions to support the compilation of comparative experiences and the preparation of the stock‑taking report for COP‑7.  

Those Parties who have notified the Secretariat pursuant to Article 7.3 and have not yet submitted their ASGM National Action Plan are invited to do so at their earliest convenience. Submitted NAPs are published here. Those Parties who have submitted a National Action Plan are reminded of the obligation to provide a review every three years of the progress made in implementing obligations under Article 7 and to include such reviews in reports submitted pursuant to Article 21. The deadline for the next full national reports is 31 December 2025.

a) Review of the implementation of article 7

Under paragraph 3(c) of article 7, Parties that have notified the Secretariat that the artisanal and small-scale gold mining and processing (ASGM) in their territory is more than insignificant and has developed and submitted their artisanal and small-scale gold mining national action plans to the Secretariat are required to conduct a review every three years of progress toward their article 7 obligations and include these reviews in their reports under article 21.

The Secretariat, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Global Mercury Partnership and its ASGM partnership area, has developed draft supplemental guidance for the review of the implementation of article 7 in line with paragraph 3 of article 7 and to support the implementation of decision MC-5/7 paragraph 3(c) — link to be uploaded soon.

Parties and stakeholders are invited to review the draft supplemental guidance and provide comments using this form and submit them to the Secretariat (mea-minamatasecretariat [at] un.org) by 24 July 2025.

b) Effective engagement of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and other stakeholders

Decision MC-5/7 paragraph 7 requested the Secretariat to prepare a supplemental section of the guidance document on developing a national action plan to reduce and, where feasible, eliminate mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining, on the effective engagement and participation of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and other stakeholders in the development and implementation of national action plans.  

A draft supplemental guidance document was developed by the Secretariat in response to the above-mentioned request and posted on the website on 26 March 2025. Parties, Indigenous Peoples organization, local communities and relevant stakeholders were invited to submit comments until 30 April 2025. The updated draft supplemental guidance will be posted shortly.