The Galamsey Threat

The busted Chinese miners at Dunkwa-On-Offin

Over the past few weeks, there have been reports about mining pits collapsing on illegal miners, resulting in the death of many, while injuring others.

A recent report carried by DAILY GUIDE indicated that five people, consisting four women and a man, lost their lives when an abandoned illegal mining pit collapsed on miners in the Mpohor Wassa East District of the Western Region of Ghana.

The report pointed out that the deceased were resting under the abandoned pit, which had formed a canopy, after undertaking their regular work of carrying the supposed gold-bearing sand from the main illegal pit when the sad event occurred.

Others who were able to escape the fatal incident were seriously wounded and were therefore taken to the hospital for treatment.

Families of both the deceased and the injured came to the site wailing when they heard the news, but the harm had already occurred.

The above is just one of the numerous events that befall illegal small scale miners, known popularly as 'galamsey' operators, as a result of their activities.

Last year, a similar catastrophe hit the people of Dunkwa On-Offin in the Central Region where several people were buried in galamsey pit when it caved on them near the Offin River. It was reported that over 100 perished in that singular tragedy. Reports said that about 136 galamsey operators were working in the pit when the incident occurred Sunday June 27, 2010. Those who were lucky escaped the Sunday disaster. About 13 bodies were recovered from the rescue operation that was hampered by gushing water from the Offin River.

In recent times, it has been a tragedy upon tragedy as another calamity was recorded at Attaso, near Kotokuom in the Ashanti Region, with at least 12 galamsey operators trapped in a collapsed pit. Nine bodies were retrieved from the pit, with only one being identified as Kwaku Yeboah, aka G-12, a 20-year-old resident of Agogo, near Nkawie.

Causes
The galamsey activity, which has increasingly gained momentum in mining areas, is believed to be mostly practised by people who have little or no education, training, management skills and essential equipment. With the help of machines and explosives, these people dig holes in the earth and enter in search of supposed gold sand, which they process for sale.

Their activities, which are not registered, are largely undertaken randomly in parts of legal mining concessions owned by registered mining companies.

However, the galamsey operators claim they have as much right as the registered mining companies to extract gold from their own land.

They believe the lands were owned by their grandparents and therefore, with or without casualties, they continue in their dangerous venture to earn a living.

Kwaku Owusu, a galamsey operator in Obuasi, one of the largest mining areas in the Ashanti region, told Daily Guide that AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), a legal mining company, has given them no other choice but to engage in illegal mining.

He says AGA destroyed their livelihoods some years back when the company was doing surface mining, and therefore he has no other choice than to resort to the galamsey operation to feed his family.

 According to him, in as much as he and his colleagues appreciate the fact that their activities are illegal, they are forced to engage in the galamsey work to survive the economic hardship in the country.

Having reached the age of 21 without any employable skills, Owusu, a native of Sanso, acknowledges that their underground operations are life-threatening and can pose danger and the collapse of the mine, but says he, together with his other counterparts, has no alternative apart from galamsey.

Owusu's story is what runs through other galamsey areas like Dunkwa-Offin, Tarkwa, Odumasi, and Osei Kropong, and lately in the Akyem area at the bed of Birim River, as most illegal small scale miners give the same reason for engaging in their illegal mining job without any source of protection.

Owusu's case notwithstanding, Director of Wassa Communities Against Mining (WACAM), Daniel Owusu Koranteng says there are other foreigners, like the Chinese and Koreans, who engage in illegal mining activity in Ghana. The foreigners who now hide under the locals provide the machinery for their operations.

Just a couple of weeks ago, 24 Chinese illegal miners were arrested by the Ghana Immigration Service, Dunkwa, who were operating galamsey.

 
Effects
Small scale illegal mining activities do not only threaten the lives of operators, but also non-operators. Members in these mostly farming communities where the illegal mining activity takes place are, to a large extent, left to deal with floods and the pollution of water bodies resulting from galamsey operations.

Environmentalists have, on several occasions, cited galamsey activities as a contributing factor to the destruction of the environment.

They say the digging of the earth crust poses danger to the livelihood of other inhabitants in the mining communities, as their lands, which they use mostly for farming, are rendered infertile due to the chemicals in the explosives illegal miners use.

Giving more clarification on the level of damage caused by the galamsey operators, a news item carried by an Accra-based radio station  notes that environmentalists attributed recent flooding in parts of the Eastern region, affecting almost four communities, to galamsey operations.

The report indicates that a diversion of the Birim River by galamsey operators for their washing activity caused the towns to flood.

http://www.dailyguideghana.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/obuasi_galamsy.jpg

Galamsy operator at Obuasi
Emmanuel Atta Twum, District Chief Executive (DCE) of Atiwa District in the Eastern Region, one of the communities affected by the floods, in his report notes that the Birim River, which serves as a source of water for many activities in the community, has been polluted through the washing of sand in the river.

The DCE observes that farmers who once used the water to engage in their free spraying exercise are no longer able to engage in that activity as the water body is contaminated.  

Also in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti region, education authorities are worried about the increasing rate at which pupils are getting into active galamsey business at the expense of their education.

News reports from the region state that school children, especially those in Junior High School (JHS), reportedly stop attending classes immediately after they register for their Basic Examination Certificate of Education (BECE) and rather join their siblings and mothers in the deep pits to look for gold.

District Director of Education Samuel Kena observes in the report that the incident has contributed significantly to the poor academic performance of pupils in these communities.

According to the report, the performance of schools in the region has dropped significantly from 78 percent in 2009 to 51 percent in 2010.

AGA Executive Manager of Engineering, Fredrick Attakumah recently told journalists that illegal gold miners continue to cause disruption to the company's commercial mining operations and loot millions of dollars worth of gold. 

He says the 'armed gangs' dig holes at the surface to link underground tunnels, leading to the mineshafts of AGA, which tend to disturb ventilation system, with its resulting risk to the lives of the company's miners. 

Attakumah further claims the galamsey operators remain below the earth surface for weeks and blast away inside mineshafts, without any regard to safety, to hack gold-holding ore from the rock faces. 

He therefore notes that the activities of the illegal miners had reached the state of lawlessness, following the impunity with which illegal miners operate in the company's underground mines and at times hold the company's workers hostage. 

Continuing his argument, Attakumah says the galamsey operators continuously cause very dangerous working conditions for the company's miners, who sometimes fear working underground because they are increasingly being threatened by these gangs who often carry AK47s and other high-caliber weaponry.

He explains the problem has been happening on a smaller scale for years, but it has now become increasingly dangerous as the illegal miners have turned to sophisticated weapons in their operations.

'It is a clear danger for the nation to confront,' he observes.

 
Government Intervention
In 1986, the Government of Ghana revamped the large-scale mining sector through the Minerals and Mining Law (PNDCL 218) that also gave recognition to the promotion of small-scale mining. 

The promulgation of the PNDCL 218 of 1986 created the Precious Minerals Marketing Corporation to facilitate the marketing of precious minerals produced by the small-scale miners. 

Despite these regulations facilitating the legalization and formalization of small-scale mining, the application for licences has not been encouraging. 

Owners of the pits that these galamsey workers ply their illegal trade, for their own reason, do not register their activity as stated in the PNDC mining and mineral law 218 of 1896 in order for them to be regulated by the appropriate body.

The national security force normally arrests galamsey operators with the aim of curbing illegal mining in the country, says Eric Coffie Rivers, general secretary of the Small Scale Miners Association of Ghana.

He adds that the operations of the national security force had yielded little results.

'They come, beat, stop, destroy equipment and all that but as soon as they move the next day the galamsey operators are there,' he notes.

 
Security
Owusu Koranteng believes some galamsey operators who have stayed in the business for long are now identifying the need for security and are therefore partnering with some companies with concessions to legalize their activities and also to get protection from other galamsey operator.

He said the development is fast spreading and is now being used by galamsey operators who want to legalize their operations and get security.

Those who do not have the resources to go into the agreement with the big companies then resort to the use of weapons.

Rivers notes that some companies hire the services of security personnel who use their security apparatus when on duty to protect their concessions.

He says the illegal miners, in order to also protect themselves, use weapons such as guns when they feel threatened, even though they are not permitted by the state.  

'We also have our securities that watch over our sights for us.'

He elaborates that a small scale miner who has advanced can hire private security; others who are not too advanced make some of their workers sleep over at the workplaces to act as security

However, Koranteng observes that the partnership between small scale miners and bigger companies needs to be stopped as it will encourage other galamsey operators to join other registered companies for legalization after they have destroyed the environment with their activities.

'The point is that if that becomes a model, then people are going to do illegal mining to acquire money after destroying a lot of things and then legalize their operations,' he says. 'I don't think it is right.

'We shouldn't encourage companies to destroy the environment and then later on try to legalize their operations. It might have already caused a lot of harm to the environment.'

Efforts by Daily Guide to get comments from the Minerals Commission and the Ghana Chamber of Mines on the issue of partnership and security proved futile as no replies were given, as at deadline for submission of report.

 
Way Forward
Numerous suggestions have been made by different personalities to authorities in the bid to help solve the canker in our society.

Attakumah is advocating government's intervention to deal with the galamsey menace, while proposing for a multi-sector approach to fight the canker.

He advises that there should be a concerted effort to control galamsey operators because their activities disturb the environment.

He says limited evidence of participatory integrated approaches that aim to promote and develop the sector through putting clear policies, strategies and implementation plans, must be put in place and enforced.

Twum advocates that galamsey operators should be motivated and regulated, because they contribute towards the development of the economy of the country.

He also believes police-military intervention can also help bring the situation under control.

'I think when the soldiers and police come, that is where the illegal miners will feel somebody is pursuing them,' he concludes.

  By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri & Ernest Kofi Adu, Obuasi