Tackling Ghana's Irresponsible Mining Dilemma

Ghana's mining industry is grappling with a significant challenge as the problem of reckless mining practices persists, sparking environmental concerns and human rights violations.

This irresponsible mining practice has led to extensive deforestation, water pollution, and land degradation, causing substantial irreversible damage to the country's natural resources and threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of rural dwellers.

Ghana is blessed with abundant natural resources, like gold, bauxite, and oil with the mining industry playing a vital role in generating revenue, creating employment opportunities, and supporting the livelihoods of over 30 million people.

Small-scale miners extract minerals like gold from sand or gravel using a variety of techniques, including underground, surface, and placer mining. Many of them fail to adhere to proper mining protocols and also lack the necessary initial funding.

The World Bank Group reports that these activities are typically motivated by poverty and are commonly conducted in extremely impoverished and isolated rural regions by a population that often has limited education, and lacks alternative employment prospects.

Illegal mining often attracts locals and foreigners, resulting in notable negative impacts on the environment including the acceleration of deforestation, land degradation, air pollution, and contamination of extensive areas of farmland and water bodies.   It also threatened food security, spiking food inflation to 49.3 percent in September 2023 and threatening aquatic ecosystems.

This grim reality forced local fishermen to relinquish their means of survival as fish and other organisms perish, while concerns have heightened about rising public health challenges and continuous pollution of water and destruction of tourism sites, cocoa farms, and farm crop.

Head of Communications at Ghana Water Company Limited, Stanley Martey, warns that if these destructive practices continue, the country may import water by 2025.

If that happens, the cost of water could become ten times more than what we have presently, he said.

The improper disposal of waste from mining sites into rivers and streams, which puts communities at risk because they depend on these water sources for their daily needs. Health experts also warn of the potential exposure of communities to harmful substances such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals. It has also contributed to an increase in student attrition, juvenile exploitation, and human trafficking, as well as substance abuse among youth.

However, Kwaku Treveh, an advocate for small-scale miners, says the actions of illegal miners lie with Ghana’s regulatory authorities, arguing that if these authorities enforce regulations and provide guidance, miners would be able to act responsibly.

He adds that there also seems to be a lack of motivation for individuals who are impoverished and jobless to go through the proper procedures for obtaining a mining licence.

To curb the flow, 21 Ghanaians were imprisoned for 340 years for unlawful mining in October. The government spent $300 million fighting the threat over three years.

Act 995 was introduced in 2019 after Parliament revised the 2006 Minerals and Mining Act (Act 703). Illegal miners, both locals and foreigners, face harsh punishments under this new law.

Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, criticised government officials, regulatory agencies, and traditional authorities for illicit mining.

No one and I repeat, no one can bring a chainsaw to harvest in the forest, an excavator to mine in the bush, or a chanfang to work on a river body in a community without the knowledge, acquiescence, or passive approval somehow of the chief, elders, assemblymen, opinion leaders, and/or local authorities.

In 2022, Ghana's revenue from small-scale mining reached almost $1.2 billion.