Hi Gard,

In South America the main focus are the big mining companies, because it has the main impact in the social and the natural environment. Furthemore, Is difficult find articles about this topic in english, because the english speakers have the focus in the big mining and the conflict. If you read in spanish, I can send you some references about chilean case. 

My master thesis could be introduce you about the mining chilean case. It have a abstract in english: 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236930571_Cmo_las_Comunidades_Confan_Generacin_de_Confianza_hacia_Compaas_Mineras_en_el_Norte_Grande_de_Chile

Thesis ¿Cómo las Comunidades Confían?: Generación de Confianza haci...

Thank you Francisco. I read Spanish - venga hermano, mandame todo! Mi emfasis a la mineria de pequena escala es justo por la razon que tu describes; falta mas estudios.

!Saludos cordiales! Aqui hay más sugerencias desde una perspectiva antropólogica: :

Ballard, Chris and Banks, Glenn 2003. The anthropology of mining, Annual Review of Anthropology 32: 287-313.

Benko, Jessica 2010. Mother of God, child of Zeus, Virginia Quarterly Review: a National Journal of Literature and Discussion 86(4): 94-121.

Godoy, Ricardo 1985. Mining: anthropological perspectives, Annual Review of

Anthropology 14: 199-217.

Godoy, R.A. 1990. Mining and agriculture in highland Bolivia: ecology, history, and

commerce among Jukumanis. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Harris, Olivia 1989. The earth and the state: the sources and meanings of money in

Northern Potosi. In J. Parry and M. Bloch (eds) Money and the morality of

exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 232-268.

McEwan, Colin (ed.) 2000. Precolumbian gold: technology, style and iconography. London: British Museum Press.

Nash, June 1979. We eat the mines and the mines eat us: dependency and exploitation in Bolivian tin mines. New York: Columbia University Press.

Taussig, Michael T. 1980. The devil and commodity fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press.

Taussig, Michael 1995. The sun gives without receiving: an old story, Comparative

Studies in Society and History 37(2): 368-398.

Taussig, M. 2004. My cocaine museum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gracias Penelope! Agradezco tus sugerencias y también tengo una preferencia grande para Taussig. 

Saludos cordiales de vuelta!

I did a little search in the references of my references and I found: 

In spanish:

http://web.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/11177209921form_barreto_esp.pdf

http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0250-71612014000300012&script=sci_arttext

http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/dyna/v80n181/v80n181a12.pdf

In English:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1477-8947.00002/abstract

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328702000447

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652602000409

En España, se ha publicado una monografía sobre la minería del carbón en Asturias, fruto de una investigación de campo titulada: , Madrid, SIGLO XXI, 2004, 2010

Se me olvidaba. El autor de la obra es Sánchez Fernández, Juan Oliver

Take a look at the gomiam website www.gomiam.org

They have done extensive research on (small-scale) mining in Latin America.

Thank you Edgar,

I have actually used that reference extensively in my work already, but thanks again for your tip.

Gard