Ghana gold diggers pose headache for mining firms
[ Note: The Galamsey (local artisanal miners) are among the best scouts of gold deposits. Most gold exploration companies in West Africa boast in their web pages about galamsey (or in French, "orpailleur") workings as indicators of gold. But for gold producing companies, galamseys/orpailleurs are no help and have a lot of liabilities and problems beside just taking some gold ore. It's a big social, justice, safety and environmental problem. FL ]
Fri 19 May 2006 10:07 AM ET -- REUTERS
By Orla Ryan
DAMANG, Ghana, May 19 ( Reuters) - Using chisels and spades, Alhassan Fuseini and his crew of 20 co-workers dig out $1,000 worth of gold a week from a muddy patch of ground in western Ghana.
But the land is on a concession held by South African mining giant Gold Fields Ltd. <GFIJ.J> and Fuseini and his colleagues are "galamsey" or illegal miners, some of the thousands who compete with large corporate miners to tap Ghana's gold riches.
Not far from where Fuseini stands, Gold Fields trucks grind away, engaged in their own exploration work.
"It's true, it's illegal," Fuseini shrugs, and adds: "But we were here first."
Long before the world's biggest gold companies saw potential in the west of Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast for its rich alluvial deposits, small-scale miners had been scrabbling a living from its seams of gold.
Ghana is Africa's second biggest gold producer after South Africa.
Estimates put the number of small-scale miners operating in Ghana at anything between 300,000 and 500,000.
Some are legally registered and have their own concessions. But most work illegally on or near the concessions of large gold firms, such as AngloGold Ashanti <ANGJ.J> and Newmont <NEW.N>.
The galamsey, who use basic tools to carve out makeshift trenches and mercury to recover the gold, pose a problem with no easy solution for Ghana's big gold mining investors.
Mining firms say the galamsey steal their gold, obstruct their work and create environmental damage for which the companies are liable. Some, like Gold Fields, have learnt to live with them.
"Ordinarily, you would say it is a criminal issue but you cannot easily criminalise it. Any attempt would meet a public backlash," Anthony Aubynn, Gold Fields' public affairs and social development manager, said.
"The big companies are in a fix about how to handle it because of the negative publicity," he added.
ARRESTS RARE
In practice, galamsey arrests and prosecutions are extremely rare in a country where the deep pockets of international gold firms jar with the poverty of their surroundings and the limited job opportunities available.
Some galamsey work locally but many are itinerant miners and violence can erupt between them and mine security guards.
And it can be a dangerous occupation. In August, about 40 small miners are thought to have died when an illegal gold mine collapsed on a Newmont exploration site.
But for a handful like Fuseini, returns can be big.
He sells an average of $1,000 worth of gold a week, financing his small illegal mining business which hires 20 people and his immediate and extended families.
The rising price of gold is encouraging many gold dealers to prefinance galamsey, he said.
"There is a lack of jobs and not everybody can work in the mines ... Even if the mines could employ everybody, not everybody would work there. The mine would not give what they can get from galamsey (illegal mining)," he said.
REGISTRATION SCHEME
Decades of conflict between the galamsey and their larger counterparts prompted Ghana's Minerals' Commission to set up a registration scheme in 2004, under which small-scale miners could register to get government-approved concessions.
About 15,000 miners have registered under the scheme but many complain the process is long and complicated.
And often the areas where they want to work have already been registered by a large firm, said Amponsah Tawiah, the Minerals Commission officer in charge of small-scale miners.
Even galamsey who do get legal concessions know that one day these will be exhausted and they may end up back on the concession of a large miner.
Many think the solution would be to help the galamsey retrain and find other work.
Tawiah suggests that larger firms give parcels of their concessions to the small miners. "Giving part of the land to the galamsey will buy peace for them," he said.
Until now, Gold Fields has largely ignored the hundreds of galamsey on part of its Damang concession, the smaller of its two mines in Ghana. But now it wants to mine this area too and has set the galamsey an August deadline to leave the site.
Fuseini has registered as a small-scale miner but has yet to receive a concession.
"Galamsey is all I know ... If I don't get a concession, I will ask Gold Fields if they have a piece of land they are not interested in and I will go there," he said.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
