Over the past decades, artisanal mining has become increasingly important in several West African countries. Various recent studies have shown that it represents a crucial livelihood strategy for many rural households. At the same time, the development of artisanal mining, which is mostly informal, has raised concerns about its social and environmental sustainability. Based on a detailed study of a small-scale mining site in Burkina Faso, we show that, contrary to what is often assumed, artisanal mines are not places of lawlessness. The mining site’s organization depends on proximity-based governance structures even if the rules themselves are informal. However, these governing structures remain fragile and have various shortcomings, which limit the contributions that artisanal mining can make to territorial development. Operations are mostly focused on short-term profitability at the expense of social and environmental sustainability, resulting in dangerous and precarious working conditions. Consequently, these local forms of governance, which are shaped by both markets and traditional power structures, suffer from a lack of meaningful public policies that could accompany, as well as respect, the local regulatory mechanisms in place.