THE ARTISANAL small-scale mining (ASM) sector has witnessed significant growth over the years due to two major reasons.
To begin with, the sector has become an important route for people in the world’s poorest countries to navigate their way out of poverty by generating small incomes due to lack of employment opportunities. Secondly, the price value of gold has soared globally, making the sector attractive for wealth creation. The definition of ASM depends on the type of tools used, and their effect on the environment.
Globally, it is estimated that the sector saw an increase from six million people in 1993 to 13 million in 1999. However, the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) estimated that the sector further expanded from 30 million in 2014 to 40.5 million people in 2017.
Currently, an estimated 150 million people, mostly from approximately 80 global south countries including Ghana, Mali, Kenya, Tanzania, Bolivia and Peru are engaged in ASM, compared to only seven million people working in the large-scale mining sector. The sector’s share of global mineral production has also increased over the years, contributing to 20% of global gold supply, 26% of the world’s tantalum production and 25% of the world’s tin coming from ASM. In Africa, the sector is dominated by artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM).
It is estimated that 80% of ASM miners operate informally, and this also underpins their poor performance and traps most community members in cycles of poverty which deprived them of access to legal support. Some have argued that to deal with the ASGM menace, the sector needs to be formalised to include the views of ASM operators in decision-making. There are indicative reasons for the large public participation in ASM in Sub-Saharan Africa.
To begin with, the sector’s burgeoning is motivated by the desire to grow wealth. Compared to commercial farming, it is estimated that ASM generates an average minimum wage earning of $3 a day, while agriculture only provides about $0.6 daily earnings. In addition to this, mining is an all-year-round activity compared to farming which is seasonally bound. In Ghana, artisanal small-scale mining is known in local parlance as “galamsey,” which means to ‘gather and sell’.
Unlike large-scale mining (LSM) which is licenced and usually involves the use of sophisticated mining equipment such as excavators and mining explosives, ASM exists in two forms: it includes licensed and unlicensed operations.
Both the LSM and the ASM sectors are regulated by the minerals and mining Act, (ACT 703) of 2006, whilst the unlicensed ASM operation is informal and unregulated. The minerals and mining Act (ACT 703) of 2006, as amended by the minerals and mining (Amendment) Act, (ACT 900) of 2015, and the minerals development fund Act, (ACT 912) of 2016, are the main mining laws of Ghana. These laws provide for a wide range of legislation, including the procedures to apply for mining concessions, as well as the acquisition of mining licenses.
The minerals commission, the EPA and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MLR) are the key regulatory institutions of the mining sector in Ghana. In Ghana, the unlicensed ASM or ‘galamsey’ operation is illegal. The practice is labour intensive and requires the utilisation of rudimentary tools such as shovels and pickaxes to dig the gold from the underground. In addition, the sector is predominantly artisanal small-scale gold mining.
The ASGM operators also rely on the use of dangerous chemicals such as mercury to separate the gold from its ores leading to serious health hazards. At present, most ASGM operators do not have a license to mine as required by law largely due to factors such as corruption, clientelism, regulatory capture, long and cumbersome license processing times, and exorbitant licensing fees.
Besides cocoa and oil, gold is one of the major export earners for Ghana, with gold production dating back to some 1,000 years. According to available data from the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the Ghana statistical service, the mining sector alone contributed 12% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021, compared to Cocoa with just 1.9% and Oil and gas with 4.6%.
It is estimated that ASM accountsfor an estimated 30% of gold production in Ghana. In addition to this, an estimated four million households depend on ASM for their livelihood. It is further estimated that the sector employs some 1 million people including foreigners, making Ghana the second country in Africa after Tanzania with the largest number of ASM employees in 2016. A recent study conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Surrey in some three sub-national regions in Ghana shows that Covid-19 had little or no impact on ASGM activities.
Out of the 263 respondents drawn from greater Accra, Eastern and the Ashanti regions, 81% said their mining activities were not in any way affected by restrictions imposed by the government during the pandemic. Yet, despite the significance of the sector to wealth creation, mining communities remained largely poor, with a lack of access to basic social amenities and education.
The ‘galamsey’ activities have equally raised serious environmental, health and safety (EHS) concerns. On environmental-related issues, ASGM activities have led to forest degradation and water pollution. It is estimated that approximately 30000 hectares of forest have been destroyed by ASGM activities between 2015 and 2018.
Healthwise, the use of mercury in mining is leading to an increase in mental health cases in some mining communities, whilst safety concerns have been raised over open pit galamsey mines which poses risk to death for residents.
Recent reports by the Ghana health service (GHS) have shown that the outbreak of the Marburg virus in some mining communities is due to open galamsey pits which have become the home to bats and rodents—the main carriers of the virus. In some mining communities, it has been reported that ASM activities have led to violent confrontations between ASGM miners and LSM companies and security forces stationed in these communities.
In 2017, the government took a decision to ban ASGM activities for six months after an Accra-based radio station Citi FM launched a campaign against illegal mining operations in the country. Government intervention includes the deployment of military personnel to illegal mining areas to clamp down on operators.
Data available shows that a similar strategy known as ‘’operation mercury’’, used by the Peruvian government to discourage illegal mining in the Peruvian Amazon forest during the same period has led to a 90% decline in gold mining deforestation.
However, given the economic impact on the people, concerns have been raised that ‘operation mercury’ only created an opportunity for illegal miners to relocate to new mining areas. In Ghana, the ban on both legal and illegal artisanal small-scale mining lasted for two years, leading to worsening living conditions for families that depend on ASM for their livelihoods, loss of jobs, and a reduction in income levels for poor families.
According to the Water Resource Commission (WRC), nearly 60% of water bodies have been polluted by illegal miners, prompting the Ministry of Defence to warn that Ghana risk importing water by the year 2030 if the trend continues.
Recent reports also suggest that more than 40% of mental health cases in communities such as Obuasi are due to the release of mercury in water bodies. Recently, the government took a decision to eliminate the use of mercury in mining by providing ‘mercury-free’ mining equipment to licenced ASM operators. This seeks to operationalise the implementation of the 1999 Minamata Convention on the use of mercury in mining. Yet, the enforcement of mining regulations has remained ineffective due to factors such as regulatory capture, political interference, and weak institutional and management capacity at the local government levels.
Given the above, my research will seek to explore the potential for citizen participatory initiatives by examining innovative ways of involving key stakeholders such as government representatives, community members and other non-state actors such as civil society groups, and the media in environmental decision-making to address the challenges with artisanal small-scale mining of gold in Ghana. There are four potential goals for this research.
They include:
- a) exploring citizen participatory initiatives across liberal and constitutional democracies, and determining how this could be applicable in Ghana;
- b) examining the decision-making mechanisms in Ghana drawing on the institutional and governance frameworks;
- c) exploring various environmental decisionmaking mechanisms, and drawing on useful lessons from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries; and
- d) review innovative participatory mechanisms, their success and challenges to determine how such mechanisms could complement the enforcement of environmental laws relating to ASGM in Ghana. In that regard, my research does not seek to prescribe a specific one-size-fits-all approach to citizen participation, but rather, to explore existing participatory initiatives, carefully examine them, and draw on useful participatory mechanisms from the global north countries, particularly those from the OECD countries.
BY Prince K. Bansah