guest column:Peter Makwanya To date, a lot has been written and published with regards to the vices associated with artisanal mining or small-scale mining. So many ills, insults, crimes and abuses have been witnessed and documented but artisanal mining remained what it is and what it is known for — leaving no winner or loser. This vicious, gruelling and “dog eat dog” practice has refused to die neither have the participants chosen to listen nor demonstrate sanity. As such, only one pillar of hope which has been the missing link in this unsustainable mining practice is the role of communication, designed to tame wayward behaviour and build characters which respect the importance of the environment, for future generations to benefit and inherit. The era of name calling, physical and verbal abuses including loss of lives need to come to an end. Sustainable communication tools should be harnessed, heal the wounds and redefine communities as this struggle for survival continues. It is common knowledge and a living truth that artisanal mining has left trails of environmental destruction, land degradation and use toxic and dangerous substances which are detrimental to human health and the environment. All these ills are in the public knowledge and domain. While legal instruments have struggled to bring sanity to this practice, communication and its multiple tools are the missing link, the only possible tools to deal with this practice decisively. The role of communication in sustainable mining practices has been relegated and overtaken by anarchy. By simply uttering or writing something, surely it cannot be said communication would have taken place, it’s essentially more than that. Artisanal miners have been deprived and starved of inclusive and informed communication networks and tool-kits to enhance environmental conservation, land management practices — regeneration and rehabilitation. Rules in the absence of participatory techniques are not sufficient to change human behaviour as the first thing that artisanal miners did was to do away with the rule book because it was designed in isolation. Rules governing these mining operations are prescriptive rather than participatory. Due to the fact that artisanal miners live normal lives, but suddenly become wild and destructive when it comes to mining. It means they can behave well because first and foremost, they are human beings. Terms like illegal mining activities are no longer hogging the limelight since the emergence of terms like artisanal or small-scale mining. Changing the language alone without transforming behaviours and build characters will not lead to sustainable mining practices. While poverty is the main driver of artisanal mining, it doesn’t mean that miners lose their reasoning. Collective communication and collaborative research will become handy in transforming artisanal mining operations. There is no doubt that the gold output from the informal mining sector adds to the national gold output, but the means do not justify the end. These miners are not aware o