Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Indonesia: A Case Study of Tobongon, East Bolaang Mongondow District, North Sulawesi Province

Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) is an exciting issue in the developing world related to sustainable development goals in environmental topics. Mercury is one of the several focuses related to ASGM. The Minamata convention made to reduce and regulate mercury usage in ASGM practices. Indonesia, as a developing country with a quite significant number of ASGM miners, has been ratified and forced the implementation of the Minamata Convention since 2016. An ASGM operation located in Tobongon, East BolaangMongondow, North Sulawesi Province selected as a site of study. Tobongon is one of the few people's mining areas (Wilayah Pertambangan Rakyat - WPR) that has been verified by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (KementerianEnergidanSumberDaya Mineral - ESDM). This study covers several topics such as the current state of operation concerning mercury usage, legal status, and couples of activities that has been done for capacity building in the area. Descriptive analytics methodology was undertaken to finish this study. The result of this study will illustrate ASGM conditions in Indonesia with its complexity and challenges for improvement and development.