Antoinette Van der Merwe


Last Name

Van der Merwe

First Name

Antoinette

ORCID

0000-0003-2489-8479

Organisational unit

Filters

2021 - 202511
Reset filters

Search Results

Publications 1 - 10 of 11
  • Towards responsible gold supply chains: A case study from Burkina Faso to Switzerland
    Item type: Doctoral Thesis
    Van der Merwe, Antoinette (2022)
    Gold is a metal with high direct consumer demand; more than 75% of gold is used for jewellery and investment. Gold is extracted worldwide, including in Burkina Faso, one of Africa's fastest-growing and fourth-largest gold producers. Although gold extraction has had significant benefits for the Burkinabe economy, it has also led to many environmental and social problems, especially in the artisanal gold mining sector. Artisanal gold mining is a poverty-driven, labour-intensive mining operation. The vast majority of Burkina Faso's artisanal mines operate informally and are therefore unregulated, leading to serious environmental problems like mercury pollution as well as human rights abuses, such as the worst forms of child labour. More than 90% of the gold produced in Burkina Faso is exported to Switzerland for refinement. Although Switzerland is also one of the largest per capita consumers of gold globally, Swiss consumers are far removed from the impacts of their gold consumption. This dissertation examines issues throughout the gold supply chain from one of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso, to one of the richest, Switzerland. Various methods are used to study issues throughout the gold supply chain. In Burkina Faso, primary survey data collected on four artisanal mines are used to assess the competitiveness of local gold markets. This survey data is also used with a field experiment and biological sampling to assess reasons why miners do not adopt safer behaviour when handling mercury. Secondary data on the location of artisanal mines in Burkina Faso supplemented with information from high-resolution satellite images are used to determine the impact of artisanal mines on local communities’ wealth, health, and education. We find that local gold markets are imperfectly competitive, making them vulnerable to external shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Making local markets more competitive by addressing power and knowledge asymmetries between miners and gold traders would improve the sector’s resilience and ability to alleviate poverty. While artisanal mines do have a significant potential to alleviate poverty, we also observe a significant increase in temptation good expenditure. We also find that technical interventions that give miners access to personal protective equipment could have significant health benefits for individual miners. Specifically, gold traders, whom we find are particularly at risk of mercury exposure. In Switzerland, expert interviews are used to determine the feasibility of using blockchain to enable responsible sourcing from artisanal miners and the determinants of demand for certified gold. Lastly, we study the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of expanding urban mining in Switzerland. Since many metals -- including gold, which accounts for most of the value of the metals in a smartphone -- lie dormant in unused electronic devices in high-income countries. To determine how to reintroduce these metals back into supply chains, we use primary survey data, a field experiment, and a life-cycle assessment. Expert interviews suggest that blockchain has a limited potential to reduce the high due diligence costs when sourcing from artisanal miners due to the difficulty of differentiating between the physical gold listed in the blockchain system. In addition, the gold certification landscape is highly fragmented, with various certification schemes with relatively low direct consumer demand. Demand for certified gold is driven by retailers and banks, who face different motivations and constraints when sourcing certified gold. We find a large potential to increase the secondary sourcing of metals from old mobile phones. Many people in Switzerland keep their phones at home after replacement, which constitutes a significant lost of resource. Reducing the transactional cost of recycling significantly impacted the collection of old mobile phones for recycling, which is cost-effective if we consider the environmental savings of recycling. In this doctoral study, I show that various actors and policy initiatives throughout the gold supply chain is necessary to move to more responsible gold supply chains.
  • Protective behaviour on artisanal gold mines: the relevance of knowledge, risk perception and access to equipment
    Item type: Journal Article
    Van der Merwe, Antoinette; Ruppen, Désirée; Brugger, Fritz; et al. (2025)
    The Extractive Industries and Society
    Many artisanal miners use mercury, a toxic metal, to extract gold from ore, without protecting themselves. In this study, we analyse the role of knowledge, risk perception, and improved access to protective equipment on artisanal miners’ protective behaviour. We combine survey results with a field experiment involving about 250 miners. While more than half of the miners perceive mercury as dangerous to their health, their knowledge about mercury is low despite ongoing educational programmes on the mines. Few had heard about mercury poisoning, could mention any of the critical symptoms of mercury contamination, or knew how to properly protect themselves from mercury. Risk perception was not significantly correlated to knowledge of mercury, previous training or protective behaviour. However, improving access to protective equipment by providing it for free had a large positive impact on protective behaviour one year later. Our results suggest that international policy efforts to address the mercury problem through the Minamata Convention should include access to personal protective equipment as a priority. This will have significant health benefits for miners in the short term while countries work to transition to mercury-free mining in the long term.
  • Rising Gold Prices but Lower Incomes for Gold Miners: Evidence on Market Imperfections from Burkina Faso during COVID-19
    Item type: Journal Article
    Van der Merwe, Antoinette; Brugger, Fritz; Günther, Isabel (2024)
    Journal of African Economies
    Although artisanal gold mining is known for human rights violations and environmental degradation, it is an increasingly important economic activity in many African countries, with a high potential to alleviate poverty. Due to increased demand for gold investment during the COVID-19 pandemic, the monthly international gold price has increased by 20% from January to May 2020. To understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced gold miners, we analyse a panel survey of about 170 artisanal gold miners interviewed 2 months before the first case of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso. Follow-up surveys were done early in the pandemic and about 1 year after baseline. Various pre-existing local market failures caused local gold prices to decrease by 20%–30% from January to May 2020, when international gold prices noticeably increased. Market failures include oligopsonistic market conditions on the mines, which worsened due to travel restrictions that disrupted trading routes, reduced local traders' liquidity and made it difficult for traders to reach mines. Moreover, we find that miners have very little knowledge of international gold prices, and due to insecurity and credit constraints, they are unable to wait for local prices to recover. Once travel restrictions were lifted, the local gold price recovered close to the global gold price. To make local markets more competitive and ensure that miners benefit from rising international gold prices, governments could broadcast world gold prices on local radio, increase trading opportunities and provide access to credits for miners.
  • Case study: The digital device life cycle: From mining to e-waste
    Item type: Report
    Van der Merwe, Antoinette; Brugger, Fritz (2021)
    Development Co‑Operation Report ~ Development Co‑operation Report 2021: Shaping a Just Digital Transformation
    The world’s appetite for digital devices has significant economic, social and ecological consequences for developing countries. It is contributing to a mining boom and shifting manufacturing. While this demand offers potential economic growth for low- and middle-income countries – the source for many of the raw materials for ICT products – mining jobs are often precarious and unsafe. ICT products in turn contribute to the world’s growing streams of hazardous e-waste, for which low- and middle-income countries are often the dumping ground. Governments with minerals in high demand for ICTs should leverage their position to maximise the economic benefits. Regulation of e‑waste recycling is also necessary to combat health and safety risks.
  • Certified gold: too many schemes and not enough demand
    Item type: Report
    Van der Merwe, Antoinette (2021)
    Policy Brief
    Various gold certification schemes aim to mitigate problems in the gold market, including child labour, dangerous working conditions and pollution. However, the average consumer does not often buy gold and does not understand all the complexities of the gold sector and the role of gold certification schemes. Retailers and banks still mainly drive the demand for certified gold, but they face different constraints when sourcing gold from certification schemes. Investors focus mainly on cost, while jewellers are a diverse group from small goldsmiths to large international companies, all with different motivations and incentives.
  • Raising the future together: Assessing the impact of the Chics program on primary caregivers in low-income daycares
    Item type: Journal Article
    Van der Merwe, Antoinette; Senyolo, Catherine; van Niekerk, Attie (2024)
    Sustainable Futures
    Parental involvement in a child's school is crucial during early childhood, a critical period for skill-forming and neurodevelopment. However, the impact of early childhood programs on parents is understudied. This study evaluates the Chics program – which includes teacher training, an improved curriculum, and support meetings – on parental involvement in low-income daycares in South Africa, focusing on parents’ wellbeing, unity, knowledge, and agency. Focus groups and surveys with 126 parents showed the program had positive changes in parental unity, life satisfaction, and agency, encouraging community projects. The results could advice other programs to cost-effectively increase parental involvement in daycare centres.
  • Economic Recovery but Stagnating Mental Health During a Global Pandemic? Evidence from Ghana and South Africa
    Item type: Journal Article
    Durizzo, Kathrin; Asiedu, Edward; Van der Merwe, Antoinette; et al. (2022)
    Review of Income and Wealth
    Ghana and South Africa proactively implemented lockdowns very early in the pandemic. We analyze a three-wave panel of households in Accra and Greater Johannesburg to study the mental and economic well-being of the urban poor between the COVID-19 lockdown and the "new normal" one year later. We find that even if economic well-being has mostly recovered, life satisfaction has only improved slightly and feelings of depression are again at lockdown levels one year into the pandemic. While economic factors are strongly correlated with mental health and explain the differences in mental health between South Africa and Ghana, increasing worries about the future and limited knowledge about the pandemic (both countries) as well as deteriorating physical health (South Africa) and trust in government (Ghana) explain why mental health has not recovered. Therefore, we need broad and country-specific policies, beyond financial support, to accelerate the post-pandemic recovery of the urban poor.
  • “Doing ASGM without mercury is like trying to make omelets without eggs”. Understanding the persistence of mercury use among artisanal gold miners in Burkina Faso
    Item type: Journal Article
    Bugmann, Anna; Brugger, Fritz; Zongo, Tongnoma; et al. (2022)
    Environmental Science & Policy
    Researchers and policymakers are concerned with the uncontrolled use of mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). Despite the availability of alternative technologies, mercury is still the first choice to separate gold from ore on most ASGM sites. Taking the case of Burkina Faso, this mixed methods study contributes to understanding the continued use of mercury by analyzing the non-technical functions that mercury accomplishes. Applying a political ecology lens, we analyze the mechanisms that actors deploy to access benefits from ASGM and manage business-related risks, revealing dependencies on webs of power that govern the informal setting of the ASGM value chain from production to export. Our results challenge conventional wisdom about poverty-driven ASGM. We demonstrate that the sector is not simply propelled by jobless rural youth and poor farmers eager to make a lucky strike. Instead, the need of ASGM for prefinancing extraction made it as much the product of capital looking for lucrative investment. The business model of investors is based on prefinancing extraction, controlling access to market, and taking advantage of excess labor by shifting operational and financial risks upstream. In an entirely informal scheme of cascading prefinancing arrangements, mercury serves as a ‘commitment and controlling device.’ The provision of mercury guarantees that the financier can access the gold at the exact moment of recovery, regain the loan, and secure the return on investment. Phasing out mercury will remain a challenge as long as it is used as a social control device.
  • Urban mining: The relevance of information, transaction costs and externalities
    Item type: Journal Article
    Van der Merwe, Antoinette; Cabernard, Livia; Günther, Isabel (2023)
    Ecological Economics
    Mobile phones are one of the most commonly owned personal electronic devices and they contain about 15 different metals, mostly extracted with severe negative environmental externalities. Sourcing metals from retired mobile phones, i.e. urban mining, could alleviate these effects. In this study, we analyse the viability of urban mining in Switzerland using a representative survey of 2,500 Swiss respondents and an experiment with 15,000 employees of a Swiss institution. We estimate that there are around seven million unused phones with embedded gold worth USD 10 million in Switzerland. People do not particularly value their retired phones: 22% do not know why they keep it, and 40% said they are willing to sell their old device for less than USD 5. We further find that while informational treatments do not change recycling rates, reducing transaction costs of recycling double return rates from 2.1% to 5.5%. Lastly, while urban mining is not economically viable if we only consider the market value of embedded metals, it is profitable when taking into account the environmental cost of producing a new mobile device with metals from a primary mine.
  • Swiss Minerals Observatory - Synthesis report and policy implications
    Item type: Report
    Brugger, Fritz; Bernauer, Thomas; Burlando, Paolo; et al. (2022)
Publications 1 - 10 of 11