(Bloomberg) — Hundreds of Ghanaians have called on their government to clamp down on illegal mining in Africa’s top gold producer in a second day of protests.
Protesters with signs on Thursday called for the release of other protesters who were arrested in an earlier march. Their demands on Friday focused on the need to crack down on illegal mining blamed for polluting rivers and soils in the West African nation. A final day of protests is planned for Saturday.
“This is not a crisis but a fight for the soul of our nation,” said Brownson Adatsi, leader of the Free Citizens Movement, reading a petition in the capital, Accra. “Our children’s future is at stake, and we cannot, and will not, stand by while our nation is devastated by greed and negligence.”
Gold is a pillar of Ghana’s economy and will account for almost half of exports in 2023, according to central bank data. Large-scale miners like Newmont Corp. and Gold Fields Ltd. have to meet strict environmental standards, but a thriving artisanal and small-scale mining industry is less regulated. Within the area of small-scale mining, authorities admit that a large number of mines operate illegally, meaning that there is no supervision over their activities.
Known as ‘galamsey’, a colloquialism that comes from the phrase “gather them and sell them”, illegal mining has spread with impunity, according to activists.
Unions are also pressuring the government to act, with the December 7 presidential election just two months away.
The incumbent, Nana Akufo-Addo, met with the country’s largest union, the Trades Union Congress, on Thursday, the presidency said in a statement. The closed-door meeting came after the union announced it would embark on an indefinite strike from October 10 to demand a ban on all forms of small-scale gold mining. A union spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment on the outcome of that Friday meeting.
The artisanal and small-scale mining sector officially accounts for around a third of Ghana’s gold production, but not all of it is illegal.
For many, “artisanal and small-scale” still conjures images of people eking out a living using rudimentary tools, such as chisels to break up ore or pans to collect gold-bearing sediments. But there has been greater use of large excavation machinery and dredging equipment. Some of these machines are used near rivers and forests – and even within them – and no efforts are made to rehabilitate mining sites after excavation when operations are illegal. This has left soils and rivers contaminated, causing disease and water shortages.
“There is no more small-scale mining,” said one of the signs.
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