Mining Crisis in Ghana

Did you know that there is an illegal gold mining operation going on in Ghana right now?
These mining activities are being done by Chinese run companies who have sent out Chinese miners to mine for the gold Ghana became colonized over for many centuries with Chinese investors charming their way through the Ghanaian courts. Though of course, they are not they only foreigners in Ghana investing in this, but they are the most well-known when it comes to this. Their actions are illegal under Ghana’s 2006 Minerals and Mining Act, but these companies have found loopholes and thus are continuing to do their actions which doesn’t help the locals who have to mine to feed their impoverished families in rural areas. Often, the mining is done by unlicensed miners. There is a term in Ghana for this called galamzy (which means illegal, small scale gold mining) and it is costing Ghana $2 billion (about $6.2 per person in the US and that is about €1,815,096,000.00 in euro) every year due to the mining.

Not only is this economically draining since the resources Ghana could’ve used for national development has been stolen but it is also ecological draining on a massive scale! How so? The mining for gold has seen deforestation, water pollution (which has seen 60% of the water sources in Ghana being contaminated) as well as displacement of over 1,000+ people. It is also affecting cocoa farmers, the farmers we rely on for our chocolate products since chocolate comes from the cocoa pods!

The 60% of Ghana's water sources being polluted has been caused by harmful substances like mercury and cyanide being used in the mining operations and this has also caused a public health crisis in Ghana since the aforementioned chemicals have entered the food chain. Both the Ghanaian population and the biodiversity in Ghana have been affected by these dastardly mining operations and their deadly chemical usage.
Recently demonstrations took place to pressure the government to act decisively against the illegal mining, but this has resulted in arrests and the mistreatment of those in custody following their arrests. As a result, Monday 30 September 2024, will see the government impose a Nationwide lock down and local Media outlets in Ghana are struggling to bring awareness to the situation globally.