The problems with resettling miners in Ghana

Ghana’s gold mining industry is dominated by large, mechanised mines, often owned by foreign companies. These create few employment opportunities for local people and many subsistence farmers have lost their land. Some displaced people have begun to generate an income by illegally mining gold deposits near the ground surface, known locally as ‘galamsey’ miners.

The Ghanaian government developed the Prestea Action Plan (PAP) to support galamsey miners. This planaimed to encourage them to resettle to areas where they could mine legally.Initially, this plan was seen as a positive approach, as the government appearedto be engaging with galamsey miners and responding to their problems.

However, research from the Institute forDevelopment Policy and Management, in the UK, illustrates that the PAP wasfundamentally flawed and did not have positive outcomes for galamsey miners. ThePAP recognised that discussions between galamsey miners, the government andforeign mining companies were essential. However, the way in which the plan wasdelivered was unsuccessful, leading to a further marginalisation of the miners.

The research identifies several problemsthat prevented the PAP from being successful:

• Galamsey miners are seennegatively by officials and foreign mining companies, and they are oftenaccused of stealing from mining companies.
• However,most galamsey miners work on near-surface deposits, which cannot bemechanically extracted by large-scale operations, so they are not stealing frommining companies.
• Indigenouspeople are often forced into galamsey mining because they have lostagricultural land to foreign mining companies.
• Theprocess for galamsey miners to apply for a legal mining license is lengthy,costly and bureaucratic, which makes this option very difficult for poor peoplewith low literacy levels.
• Attemptsto stop galamsey mining and protect the interests of foreign investors almostalways result in human rights abuses towards the miners.

There is still a need to encouragediscussions between galamsey miners, the Ghanaian government and foreign miningcompanies. These should take place to ensure that the needs of one group do notaffect the activities of other groups. The PAP approach of resettling minersfailed to achieve this, but the shortcomings of this effort can inform futureinitiatives: