Given the forecasts for increasing global consumption by 2050, the global demand for critical raw materials for the energy transition, the geopolitical, and environmental upheavals, experts estimate that mineral deposits easily accessible to artisanal miners could be depleted, forcing them to dig deeper or to exploit more difficult to access and more complex areas, which would be beyond their capacities. Large mining companies with advanced technologies could monopolize the remaining resources, further marginalizing artisanal miners. Climate change and extreme weather events (floods, droughts, etc.) could make artisanal mining activities more dangerous and less viable, leading to restrictions on land use. Governments and international organizations could impose stricter regulations to limit the negative impacts of artisanal mining, which could make the activity increasingly less profitable and increasingly informal and illegal than today. If artisanal mining declines in Africa by 2050 with an estimated population of 2.5 billion compared to today (1.5 billion), mining communities in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries could experience a new era of unprecedented multidimensional poverty, causing population displacement, migration, and more serious social and identity conflicts, if sustainable ASM development alternatives are not created now. Thus It is time to change ASM economic and public policy models in order to move towards “innovation”, “agility”, and “disruptivity”, and to shift from poverty to prosperity.