For centuries Ghana was known to many as the Gold Coast. These days, the West African nation is still the largest gold producer on the continent and among the top 10 gold producing countries in the world. In 2023, gold accounted for nearly half of all Ghanaian exports.
While much of Ghana’s gold is extracted by large companies like Gold Fields, Kinross Gold, Newmont, and AngloGold Ashanti, government-licensed artisan and small-scale operations (ASMs) accounted for approximately 35% of the country’s total gold output in 2020. These ASMs supported the livelihoods of approximately 5 million people-or more than 10% of Ghana’s population.
But not all gold mining is good gold mining… or safe, healthy, or beneficial to Ghana’s economic future. Illegal small-scale mining in Ghana, known as “galamsey” (taken from a slang phrase for “gather and sell”) is estimated to cost Ghana more than $2.3 billion each year in lost revenue and illegal smuggling. Worse yet, Ghanaians say galamsey is endangering people’s health and ruining farmland. Legal mining is heavily regulated in Ghana to ensure that environmental impacts are minimized and that tax revenues are used to advance the country’s national priorities-including investments in health, education, and economic development.
The practice exploded in two phases: first after a 1989 law formalised artisanal mining and then as unemployment rates rose because of a weakening economy in recent years. Today, galamsey accounts for more than a third of the annual gold output from Ghana, the world’s sixth largest gold producer. More than 1 million people are employed in the informal mining sector across 14 of its 16 regions, costing the state an estimated annual $2bn (£1.58bn) in missed tax revenues.
The illegal mining trade is polluting rivers and causing concern about the ability to supply clean water.
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Activists say most of Ghana’s rivers have been muddied by soil washed off the gold, as well as mercury and detergent used in the washing process. The Ghana Water Company’s capacity to supply clean water to some parts of the country has been reduced by 75%. Researchers from the University of Cape Coast say Ghana may have to import water by 2030.
“You know the Offin [River]? It’s now like Milo,” one elder in the Dunkwa-on-Offin community said, referring to a popular west African chocolate beverage. “Gold is no longer a blessing but a curse.”
One teacher’s union has linked galamsey to a rise in pupil absenteeism, as children leave school to either mine or sell food by mining sites - a bad omen in Ghana, where one in five children are already not in education. Even those in school are at risk: in March, two students fell into an abandoned pit in the Central region on their way home.
Meanwhile, prospectors and sex workers continue to converge in Ghana from across west Africa, in search of fortunes. There has also been an influx of Chinese nationals, some of whom have recruited soldiers and policemen to guard their sites during mining operations.
The presence of unapproved foreign mining operations in Ghana isn’t a new phenomenon: since the early 2000s, more than 50,000 Chinese miners entered the country and brought advanced earth-moving technologies with them. In some cases, these galamsey operations are now crowding out legal ASM operators, who typically mine with basic tools like pickaxes and shovels.
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The Environmental Catastrophe
The increase in illegal galamsey hasn’t merely taken revenue opportunities away from local businesses, communities, and the national economy, in many cases the methods employed by illegal galamsey miners are also exacting a heavy environmental cost. By one estimate, these operators have polluted 60% of Ghana’s fresh water sources with deadly toxins and chemicals.
While legal ASM operators use techniques such as “panning”-washing sediments with a sieve so gold settles at the bottom-illegal operators often introduce mercury and cyanide to more easily find gold. According to USAID and local health officials, the Pra, Ankobra, Birim, and Offin rivers, which locals once relied on for their daily water needs, are now heavily contaminated with these deadly chemicals, chemicals that can linger in the environment for more than 1,000 years.
Ghana’s state water utility recently raised alarms that at the current rate of environmental contamination, Ghana would need to import fresh water by 2030. In some parts of Ghana, galamsey operations are also threatening the future of community-based agriculture. Contaminated freshwater supplies are taking away the ability of many farmers to grow and sell their crops.
Where galamsey operators use heavy equipment to clear large tracts of land for easier access to gold deposits, many nutrient- and shade-dependent crops, like cocoa-which accounts for almost 10% of Ghana’s exports-are significantly impacted. According to John Allotey, head of Ghana’s Forestry Commission, 34 out of 288 forest reserves have been impacted across 7 of the country’s 16 regions.
Agricultural development consultant Dr John Manful told the BBC that "precious, valuable land" in the forest belt had been destroyed by the gold-seekers. "Illegal small-scale mining has been taking place for decades in Ghana. However, in recent years, it has been getting out of control, having catastrophic effects," he said.
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The mining has led to the felling of trees, and the clearing of vast areas of forest vegetation. Excavators are then used to dig out the top soil and subsoil.
The soil is then deposited at gold-washing plants stationed in rivers, and water is pumped to wash the soil and crushed stones.
During the washing process, various chemicals, including mercury and cyanide, are used to help extract the gold from the soil, polluting big and small rivers. Highlighting the dangers of this, Dr George Manful, a former senior official in Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency, said: "Mercury can remain in water for up to 1,000 years. The water in these rivers is so turbid that it is undrinkable." In an interview with local broadcaster Joy FM, he also pointed out that mercury could affect the entire food chain, as it accumulates in fish and can enter crops irrigated with the water. "We are slowly poisoning ourselves," Dr Manful added.
WaterAid urged the government to take "immediate action to end the ecocide", while the state water utility warned that Ghana risked becoming an importer of water by 2030 if the illegal mining was not curbed.
The illegal mining has also affected cocoa production, with the Ghana Cocoa Board saying in 2021 that more than 19,000 hectares of farmland had been destroyed in key cocoa-growing areas like the Western and Ashanti regions.
Repeating the board's concerns earlier this week, its chief executive Joseph Boahen Aidoo said the production of cocoa - the key ingredient of chocolate - had fallen. "Yes, it has [taken] a toll on the industry," he was quoted as saying by Ghana's Chronicle news site.
The illegal mining has also affected other crops, with a rice farmer in the Ahafo region telling the BBC that she could no longer use her nearby river for irrigation purposes. "I have to set up a whole plant that involves digging deep to find water, which is very expensive," she said.
Activities associated with illegal mining, 'galamsey', often result in significant environmental degradation, particularly to water bodies. In the case of River Oda, like all other affected areas in Ghana, galamsey operations contribute to the pollution of the water body with some heavy metals such as mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As). These heavy metals have posed a significant threat to the aquatic environment (fish population) and human health.
In this study, the effect of the concentration of Hg, Cd and As at varying concentrations (2, 4 and 6 ppm) and its interactions on the growth and survival of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings was investigated. A total of 154 C. gariepinus fingerlings were exposed to varying concentrations of the heavy metals for 42 days.
The results revealed that Hg exhibited a negative effect on fish survival, whereas Cd showed a positive impact, with varying patterns of growth and mortality rates within the three concentrations. As, however, showed no significant effect on the growth and survival of fingerlings. Combinations of Hg, Cd and As concentrations resulted in a significant negative effect on fish growth and survival.
Furthermore, the interactions between Hg and Cd, as well as Hg and As, had negative significant impacts on the fingerlings, with higher concentrations resulting in lower growth and survival rates. Cd and As had a positive effect on the fingerlings.
The study concluded that a higher concentration of Hg, with or without the presence of other heavy metals, may result in the high reduction of growth and survival of fish.
Map of Ghana showing affected regions.
The Chinese Influence
Last December, as an Accra court convicted a Chinese woman called Aisha Huang for illegal mining, the judge expressed regret that she could not hand out more than the then maximum five-year penalty to the defendant, who had previously been deported for the same crime.
“She came back with a new personality, different name and date of birth and carried on her illegal activities with impunity,” the judge said. The penalty has since been revised to 25 years’ imprisonment.
The curious case of Wassa Akropong, a galamsey hotspot in western Ghana, offers a glimpse into the ecosystem: hundreds of Chinese people have established machinery stores, casinos, clinics, pubs and restaurants. Less than a kilometre from the town’s police station is China Market, a mall with, among other things, gold trading shops and pedicure shops. Unsurprisingly, the town is now known as “Chinatown”.
Several local miners said the gold rush had been accelerated by a gamechanging Chinese technology: the Changfan, a multipurpose machine that allows exploration in the riverbeds. In August 2022, soldiers burned 838 Changfans.
Government Response and Challenges
After winning his first four-year term, Akufo-Addo said he was prepared to “put my presidency on the line” to end galamsey. As he prepares to exit office, many say his government has failed to act because it is scared of losing votes in the forthcoming election in districts where the electorate are perpetrators.
More than 2,000 artisanal mining licences were issued between 2017 and 2021 according to data from the Ghana Mining Repository, amounting to 95% of all licences handed out between 1989 and then. Some of the licences have been linked to ruling party members.
“I don’t know anything about such reports,” said Haruna Mohammed, the party’s deputy general secretary.
“The firefighters are themselves the arsonists,” said Awula Serwah, the Accra-based coordinator of Eco-Conscious Citizens, an environmental nonprofit. “Some of this galamsey money is used for [funding] elections.”
“Even those [Ghanaians] who have licences have a company and then they give the work to Chinese nationals or non-Ghanians,” she added.
The spotlight has also been beamed on local administrators including traditional rulers. As owners of customary land in Ghana, they have the power to allocate freely and have been accused of being willing collaborators in galamsey. In August, a prominent monarch stripped three of his chiefs of their titles for being complicit in the practice.
Akufo-Addo’s predecessor John Mahama, whose government expelled 45,000 Chinese nationals in 2013 after raiding galamsey sites, has said he would tackle the practice if he won the presidential election this December. The incumbent has accused his rival of politicising the issue, saying the latter once promised amnesty for perpetrators.
In September, the government said that 76 people, including 18 foreign nationals, had been convicted of illegal mining since August 2021, and more than 850 others were being prosecuted.
As protests took place in Accra to highlight the devastation, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo responded last week by ordering the deployment of naval boats "to ensure the immediate cessation of all mining activities, legal or illegal, in and around these water bodies".
Nyankonton Aid Foundation is committed to addressing the severe environmental and health challenges caused by illegal mining (galamsey) activities in Ghana. The foundation’s focus is to restore the 40% degraded forests, clean the 60% polluted water bodies, and protect marine ecosystems impacted by toxic chemicals, including mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium, which are released by mining operations. We aim to restore degraded forests by 80% and clean polluted water bodies by 90% by planting native trees like Hevea brasiliensis to improve soil fertility, combat climate change, and reduce erosion.
A galamsey mining site in Ghana.
The Fight Goes On
Despite the complexity of challenges, more local people say they are determined to save their country.
Patrick Danso, a teacher turned activist in Atronsu in western Ghana, says Chinese intermediaries tried to bribe him in August to stop his activism. The father of five says he refused as he has a responsibility to “secure the future for his kids” and protect his cocoa farm - “his pension”.
In September, a civil society coalition including Serwah’s Eco-Conscious Citizens sued the government regarding the legality of a 2022 law which allows mining in forest reserves, including globally significant biodiversity areas.
Labour unions had called for a national strike in October to force a repeal of the law but the plan was shelved after Akufo-Addo promised to rescind the law and parliament began a debate about the process.
Some say they are ready to protest again, even though 11 of those detained in September have been imprisoned.
“If you’re trying to protect the future of your nation, it’s a worthwhile cause,” said Nelson, who still faces multiple charges in court including unlawful assembly.
Felicity Nelson remembers her 17-day detention last September vividly. The 34-year-old Ghanaian activist was one of 53 people arrested at a road junction in Accra after demonstrating alongside hundreds of other youths against illegal mining. In detention, the group found a 54th person in their midst who had not been at the protest but was apprehended after visiting Oliver Barker-Vormawor, the protest’s organiser in hospital. Nelson, who is asthmatic, was denied access to inhalers in her cell, which she said reminded her of slave dungeons used during the transatlantic human trade. “No light, no air, just holes in the ceiling for ventilation,” said the activist, who relied on food brought by her family and friends while she was being held.
The west African state, led by Nana Akufo-Addo, a human rights lawyer, has long been seen as a beacon of democracy. However, activists and rights groups say civil freedoms are being eroded by authorities reluctant to tackle illegal mining, a practice that began before independence when the former British colony was still named the Gold Coast.
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