Statistics show that mining concessions have taken over 70% of the total land area of Ghana resulting in the destruction of large tracts of land and the scramble for farmlands. Obviously, the livelihood of about 80% of the nation’s population who are involved in the agriculture sector is in danger. Also, between 1990 and 1998 a total of fourteen communities with a population of over 30,000 people were displaced as a result of the activities of mining companies (source: Akabzaa).
Surprisingly, the mining industry in Ghana accounts for just 5% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and minerals make up 37% of total exports, of which gold contributes over 90% of the total mineral exports. Thus, the main focus of Ghana's mining and minerals development industry remains focused on gold.
Ghana is Africa's 2nd largest gold producer, producing 80.5 tonnes in 2008. Production is dominated by AngloGold Ashanti. The country is also a major producer of bauxite, manganese and diamonds. Ghana has an estimated 23 large-scale mining companies producing gold, diamonds, bauxite and manganese, and there are also over 300 registered small scale mining groups and 90 mine support service companies (Wikipedia).
According to WACAM, a non-governmental organization advocating for best practices in the mining sector, Ghana's PNDC government in 1983 adopted its first International Monetary Fund/World Bank sponsored Economic Recovery Program (ERP); policies that paved way to a fast and insensitive liberalization of the mining sector, which was hitherto ran by the State. Few years later, several foreign mineral mining companies most especially, gold-mining companies began operating in the country.
The operations of these companies, specifically, the way in which they related to the communities close to their concessions, brought much conflict and sometimes violent blood-shed to the area and their inhabitants.
The majority of these conflicts revolved around pertinent issues like access to land for farming purposes. When the mineral firms began to develop surface mining operations, they needed access to large tracts of land, much of which was already being used as farmlands and settlements by the people.
The aftermath was numerous cases of forced eviction, inadequate land compensation, land degradation, the destruction of sacred sites or shrines, community displacement, and the pollution of important water bodies that served the communities.
Surely, gold ranks among the most high-tech of metals, performing vital functions in many areas of everyday life. Its unique properties make it useful in medical applications, pollution control, air bags, mobile telephones, laptop computers, space travel, and many other things human beings consider essential to today's society.
Almost all electronic consumer items contain a small amount of gold, which is important to the reliable and efficient functioning of the equipment. Thus, the economic significance of this mineral can’t therefore, be underestimated.
Considering the large scale destructions that have been caused by these mining companies most of which would cost the nation several millions of dollars to reverse them to their previous form, the question I like many other people are asking is, what have been the benefits of these extractions to the people living in mining communities in particular and the country in general?
Ghana prides itself for attracting investment into the extractive sector, yet the nation has paid little attention to the challenge of developing legally binding and enforceable environmental laws to regulate the mining industry, which is regarded as one of the most polluting industries in the world.
Regrettably, mining over the past two centuries have caused serious destructions to the natural environment (ecosystem, plants and animal species), water bodies, farms, human settlements, human beings, graves, shrines, and among others. This is due to cyanide spillages into community water bodies and other impacts of mining such as environmental degradation and noise and air pollution.
This feature article focuses on four main regions in Ghana where mineral mining is done in very large scales and they are; Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti, Eastern and Western Regions of Ghana.
Water is a major path by which toxic chemicals such as heavy metals affect living things including plants, animals and man. One particular negative activity on the environment that generates a lot of chemicals and other mine wastes, which can cause various degrees of environmental damages and constitute a threat to existence of living things, is gold mining. Chemical wastes generated are soluble in water. Heavy metal pollution from gold mining is difficult to control and unless eliminated or strictly contained in tailing ponds, mining remains a major source from which heavy metal pollutants can spread into water bodies and the environment.
The long period of mining in these areas, have resulted in increased concentrations of heavy metals and other pollutants in water bodies. For example, from 1947 and until 1992, mine effluents had been discharged without restriction into water bodies, soil and air, thereby resulting in the degeneration of the environment (Carboo, 1997; Tufour, 1997 and Tsidzi, 1993). According to Amegbey and Adimado (2003), there had been 11 officially reported cyanide spillages between 1989 and 2003 in Tarkwa and Obuasi in the Western and Ashanti Regions respectively.
Besides, WACAM investigations also indicated that the number of officially reported cyanide spillages had increased from eight between 1989 and 2002 (Cyanide Investigative Committee’s report 2002) to about 13 cyanide spillages as at 2006. Four of these sad events which occurred in Wassa West District in the Western Region affected major water bodies. The community water sources like streams and rivers were polluted and over 52% of the population still lack potable water till date.
Findings by WACAM published in 2009 also shows that most of the water bodies in Tarkwa and Obuasi for instance, have elevated levels of arsenic, manganese, cadmium, iron, copper, mercury, zinc and lead which are above World Health Organisation (WHO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA Ghana) permissible limits. The pH and turbidity of some of the water bodies and the alternate source of water provided have low pH and high turbidity values, which exceed the WHO, and EPA permissible limits. The situation definitely will not be different in the rest of the mining towns in Eastern and Brong-Ahafo Regions, and drinking from the affected water bodies could have damning consequences on one’s health. The commonest health problems in these areas are skin diseases, TB, diarrhea, malaria and typhoid.
Not too long ago, cyanide-contaminated waste spilled from the Ahafo mine operated by Newmont on October 8, 2009 into a river, killing hundreds of fishes and polluting the drinking water of several communities. The company was charged to compensate the affected people and government with a meager amount of 4.9 million dollars or GH¢7 million.
In June 1996, a spill at Teberebie Goldfields sent 36 million litres of cyanide solution into the Angonaben stream, a tributary of the Bonsa River. The spillage destroyed Cocoa trees and fishponds while the local people complained of severe skin rashes (MiningWatch, 2000).
WACAM (2004) again made a statement on a cyanide spillage of Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL), from a new tailings dam of the company into river Aprepre which links to other rivers including Egya Nsiah, Benya and Manse. These rivers flow into the big river Ankobra. The cyanide spillage affected Dumase town, and other communities like Goloto, Juaben, Kokofu and Egyabroni. The EPA investigation into the spillage confirmed WACAM’s statement. The cost of clearing cyanide from water bodies is over US$100 million. So, you can imagine what will happen in a country like Ghana where multinationals are most often left off the hook when they commit heinous crimes against humans and the environment.
In Ghana, the effects of the activities of mining companies on our water bodies through dewatering, underground water pollution, the free use of water for mining operations, pollution of streams through cyanide and other waste spillages, are contributing enormously to impoverishing the communities who live around these areas.
Presumably, there are over 500 water bodies in all aforementioned four regions and about have of these water bodies have been polluted as a result of the negative activities of mining companies. Most probably, over 20 mining communities with more than 2 million people in these regions have been affected in one way or the other through mining activities.
Research reports from organizations advocating for responsible mining revealed that communities with potable water continue to use the rivers which are polluted, because the boreholes constructed by government and mining companies as alternative water sources are not functioning well. Some of the boreholes are not yielding water and in some situations, the water from the boreholes either has a stench or produce coloured water.
The Ghanaian Chronicle issue of July 25, 2003, reported at a durbar of chiefs to mark the launch of World Environmental Day celebrations that, Ghana is listed among countries in Africa that would experience water stress of about 1,700 cubic metres or less per person annually by 2025.
With regards to land degradation, the Forestry Commission in the early part of the 20th Century said Ghana’s high forests coverage was estimated at 8.2 million hectares and this has reduced to less than 1.6 million hectares at an annual rate loss of 65,000 hectares. The annual forest depletion is quantified to be 3% of GDP. As at 2006, the government of Ghana had granted 166 new mining leases to companies to operate surface mining. This means more environmental degradation, water, air and land pollution, deforestation, destruction of farmlands, in fact, a total destruction of Ghana’s natural habitats right from the South to the North.
As a nation, we have exhibited too much anxiety in our bid to attract foreign investment to the detriment of environmental concerns to the extent that we have permitted mining in Forest Reserves. Mining companies such as Chirano Goldmines Limited, Satellite Goldfields Limited, Nevsun/AngloGold Company, Birim/AngloGold Company and Newmont Ghana Gold limited are reportedly pushing for what one can best describe as a misguided and dangerous plan to mine in some strategic forest reserves.
The forest reserves that the mining firms are salivating over include the Subri River Forest Reserve, a globally significant biodiversity area which is also the largest Forest Reserve in the country and a critical watershed between major rivers such as the Bonsa and Pra. Others are the Supuma Shelterbelt, Opon Mansi in the Western Region, Tano Suraw and Suraw Extension also in the Western Region, Ajenjua Bepo in the Eastern Region, Cape Three Points Reserve in the Western Region and the Atewa Range Forest Reserve near Kibi in the Eastern Region which is also believed to have huge deposits of minerals than the rest of the areas in the country.
The Chirano Gold Mine Limited is reportedly mining in the Tano Suraw Forest Reserve whilst Newmont is doing everything possible to mine in Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve which would eventually leave a pit of 2.5km long, 0.9 km wide and about 0.5 km deep partially reclaimed in the Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve. There are several hundreds of mine pits in all mining areas in Ghana which are now death traps to humans and animals. Two million acres of forest land is lost annually to mining, granting the miners permits to enable them operate in the reserves will result in the clear cutting of several hectares of Forest Reserves in a country that is already experiencing one of the world's highest rates of deforestation.
Communities located around the aforementioned Forest Reserves include Asankragwa, Enchi-Yakasi and Nyame Bekyere, Cape Three Points, Daboase, Huni Valley, Bonte, Sansu, Twifo- Praso, Abekoase, Bibiani and Sehwi-Wiawso to New Abirem. But villagers, say they are seasoned enough to know how skillful the mining companies are at circumventing regulations.
Meanwhile, consider the fact that over 70% of Ghana’s total landmass has been destroyed through mining, hundreds of water bodies polluted, millions of people affected (some killed, maimed and displaced), thousands of animal and plant species destroyed, millions of cocoa trees, timber trees, and aquatic organisms annihilated, yet Ghana benefits just 5% as royalty from the mining sector. For instance, in 2010 about two million ounces of gold was mined in Ghana. Gold at the time was going for about US$1,300 per ounce. That translates to a whopping US$2.6 billion. The government of Ghana received a derisory 5% (US$130,000,000) of the total US$2.6 billion (The Globe newspaper). Both Deputy Minister for Land and Natural Resources, Henry Kamel and Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning Fiifi Kwetey according to paper in separate news reports, conceded that the Government of Ghana was not getting the maximum economic benefit from the mining industry.
The average life expectancy figures for Ghanaian males and females are 55.4 and 57.6 years respectively. Exposure to elevated levels of heavy metals and low pH of some water samples in the mining communities would further decrease the life expectancy figures for residents. Agriculture is in serious danger than we think as a nation; portable sources of water are increasingly diminishing, while the health status of most Ghanaians would definitely be at stake in few years to come.
Government should listen to the advice of the many environmentalists and do what the majority of Ghanaians want. Save the natural environment, save the small number of portable water sources left and grant Ghanaians the ultimate opportunity to live beyond 50years. Without gold, diamond, bauxite and manganese, Ghana can still develop considering the fact that annually we get more than $300 million from game (bush meat) alone. The sheanuts industry which has been the least explored can also earn the nation millions of dollars. Hmm!!!! I can go on, and on and on. So I will leave it hear and continue in at a different angle next time.
By Joseph Ziem
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