Empowering Small-Scale Gold Miners in Kenya

CARL OLSSON

President / Executive Director

Our initiatives aim to increase miners' financial returns, promoting socio-economic welfare and poverty reduction.

We enhance market access, ensuring fair pricing and transparency for small-scale gold mining communities.

Empowering small-scale gold miners through regulation, transparency, and fair market access in Kenya's mining communities.

We facilitate direct access to global gold markets, reducing reliance on middlemen for miners.

Many people get caught with the wrong kind of dealers or get caught up in a gold scam by purchasing a very low-quality of gold at a price of high quality. ARTISANAL GOLD KENYA will offer and tell you the actual difference between the gold karats which defines the standard of the gold

The office of ARTISANAL GOLD KENYA is also the Marketing and Commercial Arm of the major Artisan GOLD MINING COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION in Western Kenya. These includes, the Migori, Kakamega and Vihiga cooperative mining Associations. We focused on exploring accessibility into gold markets globally with a common approach to pricing, and also to create transparency in gold trading. Being the sole marketeer of the Gold mined by these Gold mining cooperative Association, our price quotes are attractive as we offer the best quality of gold to our clients. As already underlined, many people get caught with the wrong kind of dealers or get caught up in a gold scam and purchase a very low-quality of gold at a price of high quality. So, it is important to deal directly with us.. We will offer and tell you the actual difference between the gold karats which defines the standard of the gold

THE ARTISAN MINING PROCESS

OUR TEAM

Dr Carl received his PhD from the University of Salzburg in Geochemistry and held a tenured Professorship at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria from 1999 until 2011 before taking the lead position at the Artisanal Gold Kenya. He started his work in artisanal mining in 1995 in the Brazilian Amazon and in the following 20 years has worked in numerous countries across three continents. He has extensive experience in technical, policy, and business capacities in the field with miners, governments, international institutions, and industry. He has become a world renowned expert and a voice on the international stage with numerous publications on the issue, including authoring the global estimate on mercury use in artisanal gold mining used to negotiate the Minamata Convention.

Creating sustainable business opportunities for investors and the bullion and jewelry markets while improving the economics, health and environment of miners and their communities in collaboration with governments is a direction that Dr. Carl brings to AGK. His primary goal is to increase responsible artisanal gold production to volumes that are significant relative to the size of the burgeoning sector.

Carl Olsson

Executive Director,

Our team has extensive field knowledge and direct experience with the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining communities. We have broader experience in the areas of business, sustainable development, social responsibility, governance, environment, health, geology, Geo-spatial analysis, gold markets, and mercury science. We work with miners, government, and industry. Our diversity is our strength.

Rachel Muguru

Financial Controller / Secretary

ALVIN MUKEB

Strategy & Business Development Officer

JAMES MOURELE

Project Manager

Irene Maido has over 11 years' experience as a Geo-environmental Engineer, researcher and consultant. She joined Artisanal Gold Kenya in August 2023 as Head of Sustainable Development. Prior to joining Artisanal Gold Kenya, Mrs. Irene worked at Golder Associates as Senior Geo-environmental/Tailings Engineer and later as the company's Regional Manager for East Africa. She was also the Senior Manager for Environment and Closure at Gold Fields South Africa, following her time with AMEC Earth and Environmental in Ontario, Canada as a Geo-environmental Engineer. Dr Irene over her career includes her extensive consultancy work in environmental management, closure planning, tailings engineering and construction, as well as acting as a third party auditor for several mining companies in Canada and Kenya.

James Mourele is a professional geologist with nearly 15 years of international experience in mineral exploration, mining, and environmental assessment. He holds a master’s degree in Geology from the University of Makerere, Uganda. He later completed a Diploma in Geological Technology from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. Throughout his career, James has worked in different roles from grass-root exploration to mining projects in East Africa, including work in the ASGM sector. He has carried out training on techniques aimed at optimizing sustainable gold recovery and has implemented programs to sensitize communities on mercury toxicity. As a native of the Western Kenya that feeds the biggest ASGM workforce in the country, James got exposed at an early age to some of the challenges these communities face and has since looked for ways to improve the sector. Developing relationships and building trust with Artisan Mining Communities has been one of the greatest joys of his career and he is excited to join the Artisanal Gold Kenya team and contribute to the organization’s mission.

Mr. Alvin Mukeb has more than 15 years of business development, corporate finance and merger and acquisition experience in the mining industry. He joined  Gold in 2014, serving as Director, Business Development out of the Royal Gold offices in Denver, Zug and Vancouver offices, and was appointed Vice President, Business Development and Strategy in 2020. In March 2024, Mr. Hynes was promoted to Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development. Prior roles include seven years in the mining investment banking group of National Bank of Canada where he advised companies on mergers, acquisitions and financings, as well as business development and board roles with junior mining companies. Mr. Hynes holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and an MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Dr. Irene Maido

Head of Sustainable Development

Rachel Muguru is a finance and accounting leader with over 13 years of experience across multinational corporations and consulting firms. From 2017 to 2023, she served as CFO at ASTRA Farm & Home Co-operative, where she led transformative M&A transactions and strategic financial initiatives, increasing revenues from 25M to 40M shillings. Her earlier roles included management consultant at E2E Solution Inc., where he implemented internal controls for global mining operations, and finance and accounting manager at Guinness in Nairobi, Kenya, leading projects that significantly improved financial reporting accuracy. Rachel holds a CPA, CMA designation and an MBA, and his expertise encompasses financial strategy and planning, mergers and acquisitions, budgeting and forecasting, internal controls and compliance, financial reporting, and team leadership. Throughout her career, she has consistently enhanced organizational performance and developed high-performing teams.

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