Evaluating conflict surrounding mineral extraction in Ghana: Assessing the spatial interactions of large and small-scale mining

Abstract Since implementation of its Economic Recovery Program in 1983, Ghana’s extractive industries have come to account for 40% of the total value of the country’s exports. An adverse impact of this increase, however, has been increased extraction-related conflict due to heightened competition between large and small-scale operators over mineral-rich lands. This paper characterizes these conflicts in the south-central section of the country by mapping the spatial overlaps between large and small-scale miners. Classification tree analysis of 2013 and 2015 Landsat-7 and -8 imagery was used to identify small-scale mine sites. The overlaps between these sites and large-scale concessions are examined in the context of reported mining conflicts. Results reveal that there is a large amount of resource competition between the two parties, specifically, more than half (i.e., 52%) of the identified small-scale mining activity occurs within the boundaries of large-scale concessions. The northwest corner of the study area contains 50% of the identified overlaps; the southwest corner contains 40%; and the northeast corner contains 10%. In most cases, these overlaps take place on prospecting concessions. The work illustrates how mapping and quantifying areas of spatial overlap between large and small-scale miners can help stakeholders implement more effective policy solutions.

[1]  Clionadh Raleigh,et al.  Introducing ACLED: An Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset , 2010 .

[2]  Gavin Hilson,et al.  A Contextual Review of the Ghanaian Small-scale Mining Industry , 2002 .

[3]  R. K. Amankwaha,et al.  Strategies for sustainable development of the small-scale gold and diamond mining industry of Ghana , 2004 .

[4]  Cullen S. Hendrix,et al.  Social Conflict in Africa: A New Database , 2012 .

[5]  G. Hilson,et al.  ‘Agricultural Poverty’ and the Expansion of Artisanal Mining in Sub-Saharan Africa: Experiences from Southwest Mali and Southeast Ghana , 2012 .

[6]  Sadia Mohammed Banchirigah.  Challenges with eradicating illegal mining in Ghana: A perspective from the grassroots , 2008 .

[7]  S. Addy.  Ghana: revival of the mineral sector , 1998 .

[8]  E. Bulte,et al.  Resource intensity, institutions, and development , 2005 .

[9]  G. Hilson,et al.  Four decades of support for artisanal and small-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa: A critical review , 2014 .

[10]  Scott Pegg,et al.  Mining and poverty reduction: Transforming rhetoric into reality , 2006 .

[11]  R. Bush.  'Soon there will be no-one left to take the corpses to the morgue': Accumulation and abjection in Ghana's mining communities , 2009 .

[12]  Gavin Hilson,et al.  Strained relations: A critical analysis of the mining conflict in Prestea, Ghana , 2007 .

[13]  G. Hilson.  Small‐scale mining and its socio‐economic impact in developing countries , 2002 .

[14]  G. Asner,et al.  Elevated rates of gold mining in the Amazon revealed through high-resolution monitoring , 2013, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[15]  Gavin Hilson,et al.  Why Is Illegal Gold Mining Activity so Ubiquitous in Rural Ghana , 2003 .

[16]  S. Giljum,et al.  Materials embodied in international trade – Global material extraction and consumption between 1995 and 2005 , 2012 .

[17]  C. Gordon,et al.  Impact of Land Use on River Systems in Ghana , 2012 .

[18]  A. Bebbington,et al.  Mapping licit and illicit mining activity in the Madre de Dios region of Peru , 2014 .

[19]  Gavin Hilson,et al.  Harvesting mineral riches: 1000 years of gold mining in Ghana , 2002 .

[20]  H. Haberl,et al.  Growth in global materials use, GDP and population during the 20th century , 2009 .

[21]  P. Wan.  Environmental justices and injustices of large-scale gold mining in Ghana: A study of three communities near Obuasi , 2014 .

[22]  Godfried Okoh.  Grievance and conflict in Ghana's gold mining industry: The case of Obuasi , 2014 .

[23]  Joseph Blocher,et al.  Influence of land tenure practices on artisanal mining activity in Ghana , 2010 .

[24]  A. Bebbington,et al.  Visualizing competing claims on resources: Approaches from extractive industries research ☆ , 2014 .

[25]  P. Billon,et al.  Extractive industries and poverty: A review of recent findings and linkage mechanisms , 2015 .

[26]  T. Garvin,et al.  Community-company relations in gold mining in Ghana. , 2009, Journal of environmental management.

[27]  H. Appiah.  Organization of small scale mining activities in Ghana , 1998 .

[28]  A. Bebbington,et al.  Extractive industries, livelihoods and natural resource competition: Mapping overlapping claims in Peru and Ghana , 2014 .

[29]  J. Ayelazuno.  The ‘new extractivism’ in Ghana: A critical review of its development prospects , 2014 .

[30]  Gavin Hilson,et al.  An overview of land use conflicts in mining communities , 2002 .

[31]  R. DeFries,et al.  Classification trees: an alternative to traditional land cover classifiers , 1996 .

[32]  F. Nyame,et al.  The political economy of transitory mining in Ghana: Understanding the trajectories, triumphs, and tribulations of artisanal and small-scale operators , 2014 .

[33]  B. Teschner.  How you start matters: A comparison of Gold Fields' Tarkwa and Damang Mines and their divergent relationships with local small-scale miners in Ghana , 2013 .

[34]  Marc Babut,et al.  Improving the environmental management of small-scale gold mining in Ghana: a case study of Dumasi , 2003 .

[35]  K. Dartey-Baah,et al.  The Mining Industry in Ghana Blessing or Curse. , 2011 .

[36]  T. Akabzaa,et al.  Impact of Mining Sector Investment in Ghana: a Study of the Tarkwa Mining Region , 2001 .

[37]  Samuel Niza,et al.  The material basis of the global economy Worldwide patterns of natural resource extraction and their implications for sustainable resource use policies , 2007 .

[38]  F. Tsikata.  The vicissitudes of mineral policy in Ghana , 1997 .

[39]  Saleem H. Ali,et al.  Multiple scales of diamond mining in Akwatia, Ghana: addressing environmental and human development impact , 2005 .

[40]  Anthony Aubynn,et al.  Sustainable solution or a marriage of inconvenience? The coexistence of large-scale mining and artisanal and small-scale mining on the Abosso Goldfields concession in Western Ghana , 2009 .

[41]  G. Mcmahon,et al.  Mining and Poverty Reduction , 2001 .

[42]  Benjamin N.A Aryee,et al.  Trends in the small-scale mining of precious minerals in Ghana: a perspective on its environmental impact , 2003 .

[43]  Samuel Niza,et al.  The Material Basis of the Global Economy Implications for Sustainable Resource Use Policies in North and South , 2005 .

[44]  G. Hilson,et al.  Are Alternative Livelihood Projects Alleviating Poverty in Mining Communities? Experiences from Ghana , 2009 .

[45]  Benjamin N.A Aryee,et al.  Ghana's mining sector: its contribution to the national economy , 2001 .

[46]  Gavin Hilson,et al.  Structural adjustment and subsistence industry: Artisanal gold mining in Ghana , 2005 .

[47]  B. Teschner.  Small-scale mining in Ghana: The government and the galamsey , 2012 .

[48]  Gavin Hilson,et al.  Land use competition between small- and large-scale miners: a case study of Ghana , 2002 .

[49]  D. Lederman,et al.  Natural Resources, Neither Curse nor Destiny , 2006 .

[50]  G. Hilson,et al.  ‘Everyone Now is Concentrating on the Mining’: Drivers and Implications of Rural Economic Transition in the Eastern Region of Ghana , 2013 .

[51]  J. K. Sagala.  HIV/AIDS Prevention Strategies in the Armed Forces in Sub-Saharan Africa , 2008 .

[52]  A. Bebbington.  Underground political ecologies: The second Annual Lecture of the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers , 2012 .