Abstract
The illegal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities in Ghana are persistently booming even after governments’ several attempts to halt the menace and streamline their modus operandi towards formalisation. This is because the formalisation attempts by the governments of Ghana have been associated with several challenges. Hence, this paper examines the challenges hampering the formalisation of illegal ASM in Ghana and the ways to overcome these challenges. The cross-sectional survey research design and the mixed methods approach were adopted to understand miners’ experiences and challenges with formalisation in Ghana. The study uses three mining districts (Wassa Amenfi East Municipality, Amansie West, and Talensi Districts), where there is the proliferation of illegal ASM activities, as case study areas. The findings reveal that the formalisation initiatives by governments fail to capture: (1) the cause-effect relationships that drive illegal ASM, and (2) the interest and objectives of the illegal ASM operators. The cause-effects include observed complex, cumbersome, and expensive license acquisition procedure, red-tapesim, corruption, and disregard for customary laws. This paper, therefore, concludes that to ensure effective formalisation, there must be a free and fair regular public and stakeholder engagement, an established feedback mechanism among stakeholders, and ASM operator-centred approaches to formalisation. The paper further proposes the decoupling of ASM from the Minerals Commission and the Ghana Chamber of Mines and a consequent establishment of a Commission for ASM and Chamber of ASM.
Introduction
Formalisation of the illegal artisanal small-scale mining sector remains a global challenge, particularly in Africa. Addressing this challenge led to several interventions in Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Ethiopia, and Bolivia. Nonetheless, there is little evidence of success from these countries that have put in place interventions to formalise the sector (Wireko-Gyebi, Asibey, et al., 2022). For example, the PNDC law 218 was established in 1986 and amended in 1989 to define the scope of Artisanal Small-scale Mining (ASM) and provide operational guidelines in the interest of formalizing the sector. On the contrary, to date, there are growing challenges with the ASM sector in terms of illegal operations and unsustainable practices (Government of Ghana, 1989). Eduful et al. (2020) found that the interventions of the Government of Ghana to address illegal and environmentally unfriendly ASM activities have led to the displacement of indigenous people from their sources of livelihood. Thus, the formalisation attempts by the governments of Ghana, both past and present, have often been plagued by several challenges. Hence, this paper analyses the challenges thwarting efforts for formalising and ending the environmental ramifications of illegal ASM in Ghana.
“Artisanal and small-scale gold mining” (ASGM) is defined in the Minamata Convention as a gold mining activity that is conducted by individuals or a small group of people coming together as an enterprise with limited capital investment and production. According to Perks and McQuilken (2021), the ASGM sub-sector of the mining industry provides a critical livelihood for over 100 million people in about 82 countries across the world. With the right support, including transitioning to responsible and clean production methods that minimize impacts on biodiversity, landscapes, and human health, the ASGM has a potential to drive local economic growth and integrated rural development. The formalization of illegal ASGM activities is, therefore, crucial as this parameter can help to characterize the ASGM subsector at the district and national levels in Ghana. Formalising the practice would also generate indicators for sustainable practices, identify sensitive areas where the national law is poorly enforced, and can be used to start discussions with local communities over policy and capacity development needs.
For proper regulation to take place, finding reliable information on ASGM; mercury use, gold production, and tailings disposal is indispensable and requires extensive site visits, multiple interviews with miners, gold buyers, local government officials, and other categories of stakeholders. However, without formalization of the subsector, collecting these data would remain elusive to the regulation of the subsector. For this reason, an accurate understanding of the ASGM activities depends on a variety of direct and indirect types of information, provided by a direct formal relation with the ASM practitioners and sites. Conceptually, illegal ASGM, which is also known as “galamsey” in the Ghanaian local parlance is defined as a mining activity that is undertaken without state permission, in particular in the absence of land rights, mining licenses, and exploration or mineral transportation permits according to the 1992 constitution. In this study, the specific terms, galamsey and illegal ASM would be used interchangeably to establish arguments and for clarity.
According to Kumah (2022), about 85% of all ASM operators in Ghana work without the necessary mining permits obligated by law. They normally operate at the margins of the law and thereby cannot legally make claims (Andrews, 2015). To Bush (2009), galamsey serves as a substitute for the commercialization of land and gold production and provides more benefits to the miners. Gatune & Besada (2020) noted that in Ghana, the ASM sub-sector provides 34% of the total gold exported from the country. Even though galamsey is infamous for its social vices and environmental pollution, it offers an opportunity to promote the livelihoods of the miners and the mining communities (Bansah et al., 2016; Tschakert & Singh, 2007). The sector is characterised by rudimentary, unmonitored, and unregulated activities, which have remained so until the 1980s when there was some recognition (Adu-Gyamfi et al., 2015). As a result, processes that would lead to the formalisation of ASM activities are replete with different facets of challenges. These include insufficient institutional support, complicated licensing system, and giving licenses to large-scale mining companies to occupy areas that are already occupied by ASM operators.
Besides, there is a social and political marginalization of the ASM subsector, which often goes unrecognised by policy makers and communities at large (Hilson & McQuilken, 2014). Thus, this paper seeks to examine the challenges thwarting efforts to formalise ASGM in Ghana and understand the primary ways to overcome such challenges. The next section discusses the state of ASM formalisation in Ghana based on a literature review. The subsequent sections discuss the methods used in the primary examination of the underlying matters, findings, discussions and conclusions, and then recommendations.
The State of Formalisation of ASM in Ghana
ASGM activities, over the years, have largely been orchestrated informally and illegally across the globe. The Government of Ghana (GoG) has, however, enacted several laws intending to protect local indigenous investors from being displaced by their multinational compatriots in the large-scale mining sector and also for proper regulation. However, government attempts to identify and regulate illegal operators of ASM since 1979 have since proven futile. Bush (2009) suggests that the formalisation of small scale mining with the intention of regularising and controlling their activities is less likely to attract the youth into licensed mining. The small scale miners evade these attempts because they are mobile, skilled at finding gold deposits, and innovative at resisting capture (Bush, 2009). In addition, government institutions lack the capacity to enforce the relevant laws of their states and provide incentives associated with the legalisation. Besides, there is a lack of political will by governments to ensure that the requirements for formalisation are followed (Marshall & Veiga, 2017).
In light of the above, illegal ASM continues to grow in size and number because of the variety of job opportunities it offers for men, women, and children in the country (Eduful et al., 2020). Some of the opportunities in Ghana include: downstream service people, bookkeepers, middlemen, washers and diggers (Banchirigah, 2008). Also, the increasing number of illegal ASM in Ghana has been attributed to the various support traditional authorities (chiefs), government officials, and politicians provide for illegal ASM operators (Asori et al., 2022; Wireko-Gyebi et al., 2020; Armah et al., 2013). Licensing procedures are ineffective and make miners more vulnerable to corrupt officials (Wireko-Gyebi et al., 2020). Due to its lucrative nature and wider economic benefits, it has been identified that foreigners are deeply involved in the galamsey activities in Ghana (Antwi-Boateng and Akudugu, 2020). This is contrary to the provisions of the 1986 PNDC Law 215, which preserves small-scale as a sole prerogative of indigenous groups.
Consequently, a study by Crawford and Botchwey (2017) showed that between 2012 and 2013, there was a proliferation of Chinese actors in the ASGM activities in Ghana. The authors aver that foreigners operate as compradors of public officials, politicians and chiefs for their private/individual benefits. Crawford and Botchwey (2017) explain that this level of bribery and corruption has developed deep roots in the ASM subsector in Ghana as a result of the reliance on informal processes by the state in exercising its powers. Given that the lack of formalisation in ASM has enabled those in authority to circumvent and perpetuate such activities in the country, ASM breeds bribery and corruption (Crawford and Botchwey, 2017).
According to Andrews (2015), galamsey operators undertake these activities for their survival. They do it for survival because it reflects the socioeconomic hardship they face (Mcquilken & Hilson, 2016) and for justice because the majority feel entitled to the lands they work on (Andrews, 2015). This corroborates with the observation that illegal mining activities in Ghana are expanding into areas that previously had no history of mining in the country (Banchirigah, 2008). Examples include Bole-Tinga in the Savannah Region, Nadowli in the Upper West Region, and Talensi in the Upper East Region. In a bid to address this insipient illegal ASM operations in the country, the government of Ghana has deployed several anti-illegal ASM task forces since the year 2000. This comprises of combination of military police, and inter-ministerial taskforces in Ghana (Hilson et al., 2014). The use of the taskforce in recent times has led to fatal incidences, burning of miners’ hired excavators, and gunfire exchanges between small-scale miners and government task force in some communities. This has received a lot of backlash and has led to renewed interest in the best way to tackle challenges associated with illegal ASM in the country (Eduful et al., 2020; Ellimah, 2020; Ghanaweb, 2017).
In 2021, the government of Ghana organised a two-day national consultative dialogue on ASM with the theme “Sustainable Small-Scale Mining for National Development.” The dialogue aimed to build a national consensus on issues regarding mining in the country (Bonney, 2021a). The National dialogue has been followed with two more regional dialogues on ASM in Kumasi and Tamale. During discussions, it was observed that the lack of enforcement of laws against unregulated ASM is one of the major factors contributing to illegal mining in the country (Bonney, 2021b). Meanwhile, the Government of Ghana is one of the first African governments to acknowledge the need to regularise and formalise ASM operations as a means to achieve sustainability of the sector (Baah-Ennumh, 2012). The government of Ghana has remained resolute to the formalisation of ASM in the country by rolling various schemes such as community mining (Minerals Commission, 2021; Nyame & Grant, 2014). Similar examples have worked well for some countries in Africa including Malawi and Sierra Leone (Andrews, 2015; Kamlongera & Hilson, 2011; Maconachie & Hilson, 2011).
Formalization, therefore, holds the key to controlling and managing the sector for the greater benefit of the mining communities and the country at large. It is, therefore, relevant that more studies are conducted to unearth the challenges and prospects for the formalization of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities in Ghana.
It is against this background that this study was conducted to unearth the challenges and prospects of the formalisation of ASM in Ghana. While recognizing the well-documented prevalence and dominance of illegal mining activities in Ghana, this study provides a unique perspective on formalisation from the viewpoint of both licensed and unlicensed ASM operators in Ghana. The literature on the benefits of formalisation has focused largely on the economic gains from the sector. Thus, the specific objective of the paper is to assess the purpose of formalisation and the miners’ awareness of formalisation as well as the government’s formalisation attempt in 2017 (where the government of Ghana banned all small-scale mining activities from April 2017 to December 2018). It also assesses the challenges and benefits of formalisation from both institutional and miners’ perspectives—thereby offering a holistic overview of the prospects and challenges for formalizing illegal ASM activities in Ghana. Most earlier studies, however, have focused on either the benefits only or the challenges only of the formalisation attempts. The novelty therefore, in this paper is the holistic presentation of the awareness, benefits and challenges of formalisation attempts by governments.
Methods
Study Area
The study was conducted in three mining districts in Ghana, namely, the Wassa Amenfi East Municipality, Amansie West and Talensi Districts (see Figure 1). These areas are major mining districts in the country and also emerged as hotspots for artisanal mining activities which also benefitted from the government’s formalisation attempts in the past. The spatial spread of the study areas, that is, the location of the study areas in the northern, southern and middle belts of the country helped provide an in-depth understanding of miners’ experiences and challenges with formalisation.
Map of study area.
More than 70% of the labour force in the study areas engage in informal activities such as agriculture, quarrying and mining, and trading. Large-scale mining activities take place in all the districts employing some of the youth.
Research Approach
The cross-sectional survey research design was adopted to understand miners’ experiences and challenges with formalisation in Ghana. Underpinned by the cross-sectional survey design, the mixed methods approach was employed for the study to gather and analyse both qualitative and quantitative data from relevant respondents on the phenomena. The mixed methods approach was employed due to its inherent strength of combining both qualitative and quantitative methods in a single study to provide an in-depth understanding of the formalisation prospects and challenges of ASM activities in the country.
Data Collection Methods and Analysis
Interviews were conducted with miners and chiefs in the above-mentioned locations and the Minerals Commission, the institution responsible for regulating the mining sector, and the Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for environmental management in Ghana between January and June 2018. The participants were purposively selected because they are major stakeholders who have oversight responsibilities in the mining communities, mining sector and the environment. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with six officials of the Minerals Commission, two officials of the Environmental Protection Agency and six chiefs using an interview guide on the purpose of formalisation, challenges and benefits of formalisation.
The convenience sampling approach was further employed in selecting 150 miners for the study, 50 from each study district. Given that there was no prior knowledge about the number of artisanal miners in the study areas, the convenience sampling technique was adopted. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to elicit information from the miners with focus on the awareness of the legislations governing Small-scale Mining activities, and challenges and benefits of formalisation of ASM. All the survey instruments were pretested and data collectors were also trained to ensure that the required information were gathered. The structured questions were processed using IBM SPSS version 21 and analysed quantitatively using frequencies and percentages. The interviews and open-ended questions were transcribed and analysed based on the content of the responses and presented based on themes and quotations.
Results
Purpose of Ghana’s Formalisation
Interviews conducted suggest that there are three main reasons why formalisation of the ASM sector is being promoted by the government, namely: (1) reduction in pollution; (2) expansion in government’s tax base; and (3) improvement in monitoring by relevant institutions. Concerning efforts to ensure reduction in pollution, officials from the Minerals Commission indicated that ASM activities have contributed to the destruction of vast lands in various mining enclaves and the pollution of various water bodies. Prominent among these are Rivers Offin and Pra. Interviews with officials of the Minerals Commission indicated that lands that have been destroyed included virgin lands as well as farmlands, especially, cocoa plantations. It was further explained by an official of the Minerals Commission that “approximately 60,000 km2of lands in the country have been destroyed by ASM activities.”
The formalisation agenda of ASM is to enhance monitoring and management of all ASM activities in the country so that they can also contribute their quota to national development through the payment of taxes. According to an official of the Environmental Protection Agency, “one important reason for formalisation is to ensure that miners become organised and easily identifiable to enhance the monitoring of their activities so that they do not flout the regulations governing ASM.” However, during interviews, Minerals Commission indicated that “currently, many artisanal miners do not pay taxes to the government.” Monitoring of ASM activities is one of the key activities field inspectors of the Minerals Commission do. However, monitoring of ASM is a challenge to the field officers because, it is done haphazardly. It was also found that monitoring was difficult because some licensed operators engage in illegal activities by using one license meant for a concession to mine several other concessions/lands.
Awareness of ASM Regulations and Government’s 2017 Ban
Interactions with ASM operators revealed limited awareness of formalisation, with respect to the regulations governing the ASM sector. Forty-seven miners representing 31% of the 150 miners sampled said there were no regulations regarding their activities except for the ban the government placed on mining activities in 2017. Also, 46 miners representing 30.6% were aware of the legislations governing ASM activities in Ghana. Out of the 46 miners who were aware of the existence of legislation governing ASM, only 15 (32.6%) could explain what the regulations were about (see Table 1). The limited awareness of the miners on the regulations governing ASM activities implies high chances of non-compliance, thus making the enforcement of regulations difficult.
Overview of Miners’ Knowledge on Regulation Based on 15 Miners Who Could Explain the Regulations.
Source: Field work (January–June, 2018).
Almost all (97%) of the miners indicated that they do not comply with regulations governing ASM operations, an occurrence attributed to the extent of awareness of the regulations. It is interesting to note that even though almost every miner knew they were not complying with the regulations, almost 70% of them did not know the regulations that they were not complying with. This is clearly a case of institutional failure. Only four miners claimed to have complied with the regulations of which two were found to be licensed operators. The other two had no licenses but claimed they observed the regulations regarding buffer zones to water bodies and land reclamation. These claims by the miners could, however, not be confirmed because of the inaccessibility of their mining sites.
The miners gave four main reasons why they did not comply with the regulations in place. The first two reasons were that the processes involved in acquiring an operating license were time-consuming and financially expensive. The other two reasons were the non-enforcement of the regulations and the fact that non-compliance posed no risk. Almost all respondents were of the opinion that those who do not comply were not punished and as a result they were not motivated to comply. The only thing a few miners (8.1%) found deterring was the arrest by Operation Vanguard, a task force made up of the military and police deployed by government in 2017 to enforce a ban on ASM activities in Ghana. Nevertheless, the miners indicated they were “able to handle the team” by paying bribes to them.
The miners were also asked about their knowledge of institutions and individuals who were responsible for managing ASM and enforcing regulations. Majority (80.5%) of the miners did not know the institutions responsible for the management of mining activities. Those who were aware of the institutions mentioned the Traditional Authority (8.7%), Environmental Protection Agency (4.3%), and Minerals Commission (6.5%). This could suggest that the institutions do not undertake regular monitoring of ASM activities and are thereby not known to the miners. It also reveals that there is minimum and irregular outreach and engagement with ASM operators towards educating them on the formalisation process. Hence, the need for relevant institutions to make their presence and mandates known to the actors is critical.
Concerning the government’s ban in 2017, the survey findings showed that though ASM activities were banned for more than 1 year, 18.2% of the miners had no knowledge of the ban. According to them, they were not aware that the government had banned their activities and were still actively engaged in their mining work. All those who were not aware were found in the Talensi District, which is located in one of the deprived regions of Ghana. Out of this population, approximately 89% of those who did not know about the ban were women in this area. This explains why they were found busily working in the open during the fieldwork. The limited knowledge and non-compliance with the government’s ban were indications that the government’s ban was not strictly adhered to.
The miners who were aware of the ban gave varied reasons for the ban. Some of the reasons they gave included the destruction of lands, pollution of water bodies, destruction of farmlands and poor mining practises. About 59% of the miners were not aware of the reasons for the ban. Table 2 details out miners’ perceived reasons for the ban.
Perceived Reasons for Ban on ASM Activities.
Source: Fieldwork (January–June, 2018).
Benefits of Formalising ASM
Both miners and officials of the relevant state institutions (Minerals Commission and Environmental Protection Agency) shared a common view that formalisation of ASM could bring about a lot of benefits to the sector. An official of the Environmental Protection Agency stated that “effective formalisation of ASM has the potential of helping Ghana reap the full benefits of ASM activities socially, environmentally and economically.” Based on the perceived benefits of formalising ASM, miners as well as some officials of the Minerals Commission discussed government’s ban on all forms of small-scale mining activities. This, according to them, means that the country will be losing a lot of revenues and income from the sale and export of gold from ASM. From the perspective of the public officials, formalisation of ASM is an excellent idea and a step that could initiate or propel the growth of other sectors of the economy. It also has the potential of remodelling the ASM sub-sector into a sustainable, profitable, safe and environmentally friendly sector that will appeal to many professionals to render their support. It is, therefore, necessary to call for proper formalisation procedures and innovative ways of regulating ASM operations so that the challenges could be dealt with to exploit the opportunities. The benefits of formalising ASM as highlighted by both miners and officials of regulatory agencies include the following:
Reducing Unemployment and Ensuring Secured Salaries/Remuneration
Many people engage in ASM activities for diverse reasons, prominent among them are socio-economic reasons. According to the miners, the unemployment rate in the country is alarming. Moreover, because of their low level of education, they do not get formal employment. Thus, formalising the illegal ASM has a potential to reduce unemployment and provide secured remuneration for many rural folks. A miner in the Talensi District further explained this by saying that “if ASM is effectively formalised, it will ensure that the youth, especially the males make good use of their time and not engage in deviant practices such as robbery and the use of drugs.”
Reduction in Rural–Urban Migration
According to the miners, formalisation of ASM activities has the potential to reduce the incidence of rural–urban migration. This is because the youth within the communities will see the benefit of their hard work and will, therefore, stay to contribute to the development of their communities. A miner in one of the communities in the Wassa Amenfi East Municipality said that,
The Chinese who inhabited our community did not develop the community, but the youth even with their meagre income have built a clinic which is almost completed. Therefore, if appropriate measures are put in place and miners are allowed to work they will not travel outside for non-existent greener pastures, but instead remain and work to provide several other infrastructure for the community.
Contribution to Gross Domestic Product
The miners were of the opinion that formalisation of ASM will contribute immensely to Ghana’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth. A miner in the Amansie West District explained, saying “if ASM is properly formalised, we will be more organised and we will sell our gold to a government gold buying company which will enable the government track how much ASM is contributing to GDP”. According to an EPA official, formalisation of ASM will facilitate the payment of taxes by ASM operators and this will increase the tax revenue base of the country.
Direct Access to Industry
It is the view of the miners that a well formalised ASM sector will grant ASM groups access to Large Scale Mining (LSM) companies so that they could learn innovative mining techniques to enhance their operations. This will create a partnership between ASM and LSM in which waste tailings from ASM activities could be sold to the large-scale companies for more gold generation since the large-scale mines are allowed to use highly effective chemicals such as cyanide for gold recovery. Similarly, ASM operators will be able to partner jewellery making companies to explore better marketing options.
Reducing Illegal Mining
The miners were certain that effective formalisation of ASM is likely to reduce illegal mining in Ghana. This, according to the miners, is because they will be incentivised to form groups to acquire licences and enjoy all benefits that accrue to formalised operators. Licensed operators are likely to join the fight against illegal mining by revealing the identities of illegal operators to officials for arrest.
Improved Monitoring of ASM Activities
Formalisation has the tendency of improving monitoring of ASM activities across the country. Miners were of the view that if they acquired licenses and formed groups, it would improve the monitoring of mining activities and aid the early detection of problems associated with mining activities in the various mining communities. An official of the Minerals Commission said that frequent monitoring would keep miners on their toes to make them abide by all mining-related regulations.
Challenges to Formalisation
From institutional viewpoints, formalisation of ASM in Ghana is plagued with a number of weaknesses that frustrates the process. Interviews with miners indicated that very few people (approximately 3 in Wassa Amenfi East and Amansie West and 1 in Talensi District) had been granted small-scale mining licenses. Meanwhile, field observations indicate that a number of people are undertaking the activity even with the government’s ban in force.
The main challenges to formalisation from the perspective of both the miners and institutions include: a) the cumbersome licensing procedure, b) corruption on the part of government officials, c) non-enforcement of laws, d) disregard for customary laws, and e) inadequate logistics and staffing for regulatory bodies. These reasons notwithstanding, it can also be said that the miners (57.4%) are generally not aware of the policies and laws that govern their activities. They exhibited this by not being able to mention the specific laws and policies related to their mining work. The main challenges are discussed below.
According to the miners, the amount of money involved in acquiring a license makes it difficult for some of the miners to attempt the application for licenses. They also claimed that the license could not be acquired from visiting just one office, but instead, several offices, increasing the red-tapism. The miners further indicated that the license acquisition process could take up to 2½ years. A miner at Mpatasie in the Amansie West District narrated his plight in the process as follows:
I have lived in this village all my life. I don’ know Accra and I have never been there. How am I expected to go to an office in Accra for a license?
Other miners opined that they have to visit the office of the Minerals Commission in Accra several times and at a cost before they got the license. One licensed operator described the licensing process as frustrating by saying,
the license acquisition process is frustrating and unsatisfying because you have to go visit the Minerals Commission office several times before you get your license. Sometimes, the absence of an official at the Minerals Commission on a given day implies that the miner has to go and revisit the office at a later day.
The bureaucratic inefficiencies in license acquisition, according to the interviewees, have made illegal mining more appealing to operators thus impeding the progress of formalisation. The interviews with the regulatory officials reveal that successive governments had failed to regulate illegal mining activities due to weak implementation and enforcement of laws. The miners shared the same sentiments by indicating that illegal mining activities had increased due to poor monitoring by the relevant institutions.
Corruption was identified as a major setback to formalisation from the perspectives of the miners. the miners experienced corruption from both the Minerals Commission and security agencies such as the police and military. Getting a license for mining was considered excessively costly by the miners as a result of bribery at every desk. Whilst the Minerals Commission indicated that the ASM licensing procedure was neutral and based on merit, the miners claimed that getting a license was for the rich. The miners claim that officials perceived small-scale mining as a rich venture and as such they must get their due share before they issue the licenses. Miners interviewed said that those who are determined to be law abiding citizens had no choice than to go through the process and pay huge sums of money as bribes to officials of Minerals Commission (usually ranging between 960 USD and 2,885 USD) to facilitate the licensing process. It was revealed that some miners went through the license acquisition process and made all appropriate payments only to end up being issued with fake licenses. The statement below made by a 46-year-old miner in the Wassa Amenfi East Municipality confirmed this assertion:
Some of the youth in the community applied and paid for licenses only to be issued with fake licenses from the Minerals Commission office in Accra. We are usually unable to detect these fake licenses until the District Officers of the Minerals Commission come round for inspection.
Despite this assertion by the miners, it is possible that miners who had such experiences do not follow the right channels and end up paying monies to middlemen who generate fake licenses for them.
On-site corruption is one of the issues miners could not avoid irrespective of whether they did the right thing or not. This is because whilst working on their sites, officers from institutions such as Minerals Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, District Assemblies, security agencies (Police Service and the Ghana Armed Forces) come around under the pretext of supervising and monitoring their operations only to end up extorting money from them.
There were complaints against Operation Vanguard, which was inaugurated in 2017 with the key responsibility of ensuring all small-scale mining activities cease. According to the miners, when the Operation Vanguard find miners flouting the ban on mining, they charge the miners amounts of money ranging from 960 to 1,538 USD. Failure to pay these fines amounted to the burning of miners’ excavators and other machinery being used by the miners. Sometimes the miners are arrested and beaten mercilessly. The miners were of the view that the government’s approach has only sought to enrich the Operation Vanguard Team. Once the money is given to them, they do not visit the site and the team can even prevent other teams from visiting the same site. This assertion was confirmed by a chief in the Amansie West District, who claimed he personally reported that a group of people in his community were working, but when the Operation Vanguard team came around they took money from the miners and went back to report to the District Chief Executive (DCE) that it was false information the chief provided.
Another challenge identified was disregard for customary laws in the entire formalisation process. The chiefs in the study communities indicated that they were holding their community lands in trust for the members of their communities. Therefore, all the six chiefs who were interviewed claimed they should be part of the licensing process to know which lands are being given out to operators and to advice appropriately. A chief in the Wassa Amenfi East Municipality also said that some individuals and families own the land and, in such cases, they are usually not consulted before issuing licenses for such lands.
Based on this practice, a licenced operator said that the disregard for customary laws and landowners in their respective communities has also impeded the formalisation process. An informant from the Minerals Commission recounted an example where a landowner almost beat him and some officers because somebody who was not a member of the community had acquired a license to mine on his cocoa farm. Probing further with this example, the informant admitted that sometimes people have their own ways of acquiring licenses because if the licensing procedure is thoroughly followed, such a situation will not arise. Chiefs of the various study communities also indicated their non-involvement in the licensing and permitting process as a major flaw in achieving the objectives of formalisation. A chief in the Amansie West District lamented:
There are several instances where people come with licenses and permits indicating they have been granted permits by the government to work on the lands (sometimes people’s farms) in the community. This breeds a lot of confusion with the local people and follow-ups with the District Assemblies do not yield any positive results. We, therefore, have no choices than to allow such people who sometimes even refuse to pay full compensation to landowners and the community at large.
Another key informant indicated that most of these licences were even fake, but because they did not know, they allowed them.
From the perspective of Minerals Commission, inadequate logistical support has serious implications for achieving the objectives of formalisation. They indicated that they were supposed to undertake regular monitoring of ASM activities, but were usually unable to do so due to staffing and logistical constraints as indicated in Table 3. The operational areas of the Minerals Commission district offices are also very large and scattered as such making it difficult to monitor the activities of miners. The Dunkwa office for instance serves eight districts whilst the Bolgatanga office serves five districts.
Capacities of District Offices of the Minerals Commission.
Source: Fieldwork (January–June, 2018).
In all three district offices (Table 4), it was realised that the required number of staff were inadequate. While four field officers were required in the Dunkwa and Asankragua offices, the Bolgatanga office required two, but each of the offices had only one field officer. This creates a backlog of three field officers for Dunkwa and Asankragua and one for the Talensi District. The backlogs had led to the situation in which the District Officers actively participated in the fieldwork instead of them playing their administrative roles. According to the District Officers, they are supposed to visit the mining fields in their respective districts on weekly basis or when necessary but are unable to do so. Other staff required by the offices but are not available were surveyors, social scientists and accountants.
Minerals Commission Operational Areas.
Source: Fieldwork (January–June, 2018).
In each of the districts mentioned under the operational areas, there are several ASM sites that require regular visits. According to an official of the Minerals Commission:
If we want to follow a systematic order of visiting the mining sites, we may end up visiting at least a mining site in every two years by which time a lot might have happened in the locality. We, however, resolve our challenges by relying on chiefs and the District Assemblies and follow up to sites where we envisage have challenges.
Discussion
The informal nature of ASM activities in Ghana makes it difficult to indicate the exact number of people who work in the sector in different communities and districts. Any estimation of the workforce is not likely to be accurate because of the unorganised nature and the fact that a number of the workforce are migrants. The confusion created by the disorganised nature of the sector and the poor practices make formalisation of their work so crucial. Attempts to formalise the ASM sector in Ghana have been on since 1989 but the foundation has not been strengthened. This study, therefore, examined the latest attempt by government to formalise the sector from the perspectives of both miners and institutions. This certainly reveals the purpose of formalisation and the miners’ awareness of the formalisation process, and the challenges and benefits of formalisation from both institutional and miners’ perspectives.
From the results, the purpose for the formalisation of ASM activities is based on three main goals, reduction in pollution, expansion in government tax base and improvement in monitoring by institutions. However, the purpose for the formalisation by the government of Ghana omits one important interest. That is a lack of focus on the people for which the said formalisation is for. How are the artisanal miners catered for by the formalisation process? The findings of this study, therefore, agree with Eduful et al. (2020) and Johnson (2019) that government interventions tend to side-line the artisanal miners. It can be argued that the negligence of some miners can also stem from such negative connotations as implied by Labonne (1996). Hence, formalisation should consider the protection of the interest and activities of ASM operators whiles deconstructing such negative attachments to illegal ASM activities. It is through such considerations that government can be on the path to achieving a successful formalisation of the sector. Whilst little attention is paid to the people involved in ASM activities, there is also the need for the formalisation process to pay more attention on the environment through its goal of reducing pollution.
Majority of the miners were not aware of the regulations governing their activities, which, inherently, aims at protecting the environment. Hence, it was not surprising that they were not adhering to the regulations. The ignorance of the majority of the miners of the regulations governing ASM could be attributed to three main factors. The first point having to do with the low level of education among the miners and their locations in the hinterlands, which makes access to information difficult. This finding is in support with that of Walle (2007) whose study revealed that the ASM sector is characterised by low levels of education and low literacy rates. The second factor relates to the poor performance of the government institutions in the sensitisation and enforcement of ASM regulations and activities, respectively, especially for legalised ASM. The miners were supposed to have been trained and monitored by the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency but they were still ignorant of the laws and regulations regarding their work. This has the tendency of making miners work anyhow and without any guidelines for responsible operations. The limited awareness of the miners on the government’s 1-year ban on their mining activities reflects the lack of consultation and participation in the government’s attempt to bring sanity to ASM operations in Ghana. This has always been the case as noted by Marshall and Veiga (2017). The implication therefore, is that the government must ensure that its institutions undertake their mandates and increase their sensitisation programs on the aim of the formalisation processes, and the regulations that miners need to follow in order to protect the environment. Special attention should be given to land reclamation efforts and environmentally friendly mining practices that could be adopted by ASM. These considerations will go a long way in protecting the environment.
The few people who had licences and the number of miners who were found working amidst the government ban on ASM is an indication of weak enforcement of the existing laws and regulations. The reasons for the weak enforcement are the challenges that need to be addressed. One key reason for the weak enforcement in the sector is corruption and political leniency (Armah et al., 2013; Marshall and Veiga, 2017; Teschner, 2012). The security agencies who are supposed to ensure that the right things are done engage in bribery and corruption according to miners and chiefs. The corrupt practices are not only limited to the security agencies but the Minerals Commission as well. Though the conventional literature does not record the incidence of acquiring fake licenses from institutions, some studies have recorded the incidence of bribery and corruption which inflates the cost of acquiring licenses (Banchirigah, 2008; Teschner, 2012). The high cost of acquiring licenses serve as a motivation for engaging in illegal practices by several miners. This is because their ultimate aim is to earn a living hence, they do not care flouting the regulations to undertake their mining activities. The cumbersome license acquisition process frustrates and discourages miners to even start the process due to the erratic and inconsistent nature of earnings within the sector (Wireko-Gyebi, Puwurayire et al., 2022). There is a need to review the license process to reduce the number of years before license certificates are issued. The reports by some of the miners about high profile people and the military encouraging illegal activities confirms reports by Tornyie (2017). According to Tornyie (2017), security agencies, especially the military and the police were known to be promoting illegal ASM activities.
From the findings, the position of traditional authorities and the indigenes in the acquisition of land for mining in Ghana is critical since the chiefs also hold the land in trust for the people in their respective communities. The traditional authorities’ role together with those of government officials in supporting and promoting bribery and corruption in the sales and use of the lands affects the indigenes gravely. This leads to the marginalisation of especially the indigenes (Eduful et al., 2020; Hilson 2017) whose livelihoods are dependent on their lands. It is, therefore, important that future deliberations and actions of people in authority especially should look at compensation measures for the people. This would decrease the number of people who engage in illegal mining as a matter of revenge and for survival.
The Minerals Commission officials at the various district levels are at disadvantaged positions since their work requires them to closely monitor mining activities at the grass root levels. Not having the needed logistics is enough reason not to deliver on their mandate. Meanwhile this remains a cost to the government since these officials are paid while they are not adequately resourced to deliver their mandate. The offices are constrained with both staff and logistics without which they cannot work appropriately. An assessment of the operational areas of the district minerals commission offices in relation to staff and logistics indicate that some districts may not benefit from the services of the Minerals Commission. Unlike other studies (Asamoah & Osei-Kojo, 2016; Teschner, 2012) which have only indicated lack of enforcement as a challenge to formalisation, this study has given details on the logistics available to the Commission and the enormity of work at their disposal in terms of operational areas.
Considering the fact that Ghana is one of the first countries to formalise the operations of ASM, it is unfortunate that little progress has been made so far. The government has great intentions to enable the effective management of the ASM sub-sector through its policies and regulations. Though the objectives of formalisation are clear, limited awareness of formalisation among miners has the potential to stall formalisation attempts. Though awareness is limited, both miners and officials of regulatory bodies highlighted several benefits that could be derived from effective formalisation. This includes: (a) reducing unemployment and ensuring secured salaries/remuneration; (b) reduction in rural–urban migration; (c) contribution to gross domestic product (GDP); (d) direct access to industry; (e) reducing illegal mining; and (f) improved monitoring of ASM activities. Despite the enormous benefits of formalisation, poor implementation and lack of enforcement have yielded non-compliance among the miners leading to the visible negative environmental effects and their associated health effects. The application of force, brutality and various shoot outs are not effective and sustainable ways of addressing the challenges within the sector. Even though formalisation has several inherent challenges, these challenges are mainly procedural and when dealt with, will streamline ASM activities and improve its management. Formalisation is not an end in itself but requires several other actions such as training, incentives and provision of technical solutions to help government reap the total benefits of mining whilst minimising the negative environmental effects. Effective formalisation should, therefore, be regarded as a process that builds on the policy support of certain political ideologies, values, ethics and innovation rather than a straightforward technical procedure.
Conclusion
Governments over the years have demonstrated their inability to recruit people with the right type of competency and character to manage the relevant institutions. Political patronage turns to crowd out competence in the recruitment process so square pegs find themselves in round holes in the institutions. It is therefore, recommended that the government adopts some radical measures since formalisation is difficult to implement. Government recruitment should be based solely on merit of a person’s suitability and not on partisan lines. This explains the rampant corruptions in these institutions. This is what the government must tackle first and foremost by ensuring that the recruitment processes are transparent.
In addition, government should look into providing and supporting indigenes in acquiring new skills that could help reduce the number of people who engage in illegal mining for survival and for revenge. Such skills development in the mining sectors have been suggested by (Ramdoo (2018) to help transfer knowledge, skills and technologies. The local people should be actively involved in the discussion of such formalisation processes of which they are a major stakeholder. The objectives of each formalisation attempts should be explicitly discussed with the miners. By doing so, their challenges could be met and could make the formalisation process more effective. Attacking the corruption menace from all angles is the only way to eradicate institutional failure in the ASM formalisation process in Ghana.
Considering the overwhelming responsibility of the Minerals commission to regulate both large and small-scale mining activities, there is the need to decouple the regulation of ASM from the Minerals Commission and the Ghana Chamber of Mines. Therefore, a chamber and a commission solely for regulating and managing ASM activities should be established with the appropriate legislation backing to strengthen formalisation and ensure transparency. The government must engage other relevant stakeholders, identify their expectations and demands as part of the formalisation process through a stakeholder analysis. Institutions such as the Environmental Protect Agency, Forestry Commission and Water Resources Commission should be included in the formalisation process. Continuous engagement with the stakeholders could serve as a catalyst for an effective formalisation of the sector. These engagements have been used by the World Bank (2010) to engage governments, private sectors and civil societies organisations in mining countries (such as Nigeria, Ghana and Peru, etc.) to improve Community Development Agreement (CDA).
Similarly, the government should ensure effective collaboration and introduction of practical strategies to manage the environmental problems caused by small-scale mining activities. There are a lot of institutions within the sector that have complimentary as well as overlapping roles which must be clearly defined to ensure clarity in operations. The expertise of academia and other anti-corruption agencies should be sought for effective formalisation.
Future studies should focus on a detail stakeholder analysis. Conducting a thorough stakeholder analysis should be the top priority for future research in order to guarantee inclusive and efficient decision-making. This means actively interacting with all pertinent parties, including local communities, NGOs, private sector players, international organizations and government agencies, in order to comprehend their viewpoints, interests, and spheres of influence. Social network analysis can offer a strong foundation for mapping connections and determining how cooperative these entities are with one another. Finding current collaborations, channels of communication, and potential areas of role overlaps or conflict is made easier using this method. Through the identification of gaps and redundancies, researchers can suggest ways to enhance resource allocation, streamline operations, and promote more cooperative partnerships. In order to guarantee that underrepresented voices are heard, future studies might also draw attention to power relationships and participation obstacles. In the end, social network insights and a thorough stakeholder analysis can improve governance frameworks and lead to more effective and coordinated responses to address difficult environmental and development issues.
Limitations and Implications
Data on the actual number of artisanal miners in the study areas were not available as at the time of conducting this survey, due to lack of adequate registration and good record keeping of all the artisan miners in the study area.
The authors however, ensured that the quality of the research was not in any way affected by the aforementioned limitation as alternative provision was made to select the artisanal miners in the study area. Therefore, the authors hereby declare that the limitation does not have any negative effect on the quality of the research.
Footnotes
Ethical Considerations
The purpose of the study was explained to the respondents in the local language and their consents were obtained before participation in the study.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data Availability Statement
Data for the study is available on request