Comparative development benefits from small and large scale mines in North Sulawesi, Indonesia

• We compare the impacts of large-scale vs small-scale gold mines on local livelihoods in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
• In North Sulawesi, both large and small-scale mines suffer from governance deficiencies.
• Here, there is a lack of transparency in the financial flows of large-scale mines, and profits from small-scale mines may be inequitably distributed.
• Overall, small-scale mines contribute more to the local economy whereas local impacts of the large-scale mine are more controversial in the community.
• Improved governance, technologies and institutions will lead to better livelihood outcomes for local people affected by mining.

We assess the opportunities and threats posed by small and large-scale mining in Eastern Indonesia. Here, both activities coexist in one landscape: in the Bitung and North Minahasa Districts of North Sulawesi. Each is associated with different development pathways. Both scales of mining have been controversial and are criticized for their environmental and socio-economic impacts. Small-scale mining contributes more to the local economy encouraging local entrepreneurship but yields a lower total financial return. Large-scale mining provides better job security and safer working conditions for employees, but any benefits of capital transformation do not accrue locally. Policy should focus on the formalization of small-scale mining and pay closer attention to the impact of large-scale mining on local communities. The governance of both scales of mining would benefit from a ‘landscapes approach’ to negotiating conservation and development trade-offs.