My gold, my money, my life – the story of a galamsey miner
Small-scale mining (SSM) is an activity that has increasingly gained momentum in mining areas in Ghana. It is largely practiced in rural areas and towns by artisans who lack the requisite education, training, management skills and essential equipment.
Seyram Atsu is a 21-year-old Senior High School dropout illegal mine operator. He has come to Prestea – a gold mining town in the Western Region to illegally mine gold. Atsu hails from far away Kpetoe in the Volta Region of Ghana. He says, he has to do this job in order to raise money to take care of his little brother back at home and to make some money for his upkeep as well. Every day he wakes up early in the morning at about 5:00 am and heads for the 100 feet dugout pits.
He descends down into the belly of the earth and stays there for about two days before chancing upon gold rocks. He usually comes out with two bags of gold rocks. He gives a bag to the owner of the pit and processes the rest for himself.
According to the 2010 annual report of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, miners both legal and illegal, popularly referred to as ‘galamsey’ contribute about 12% of total annual gold production in Ghana and employs more people in the industry than the big companies.
According to Dr Toni Aubynn, who is the Chief Executive Officer of The Ghana Chamber of Mines, ‘‘very often, the mining operations are done haphazardly with severe consequences to the environment, the surrounding, and even distant communities and to the miners themselves’’.
The 2010 annual report of the Chamber says, illegal miners have resorted to the use of hazardous chemicals such as cyanide and mercury with their adverse effects on health of operatives and communities as well as pollution of water bodies.
The Managing Director of Centre for Environmental Impact Analysis – an Environmental Civil Society Organization (CEIA), Mr Samuel Obiri confirmed that, the activities of the ‘galamsey’ operators contribute to the pollution of nearby water bodies. A research by CEIA in October, 2011 reveals that mining activities were responsible for the prevalence of various cancers in two districts of the Western Region where mining is popular.
The CEIA report, titled “Human Health Assessment and Epidemiological Studies from Exposure to Toxic Chemicals in Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, Prestea Huni Valley District and Cape Coast Metropolis”, catalogues a number of diseases arising from the contamination of water and food sources with toxic chemicals usually associated with mining, and names cancer as the lead anomaly.
With all the dangers associated with the ‘galamsey’ activity, Atsu says ‘‘it is a do or die game’’. He says, ‘galamsey’ operators sometimes get buried alive in the earth or contract all sorts of skin diseases as a result of going into pits to extract gold. “Me, I will not stop,” he boasts.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) 2010 report on mining contends that small-scale mining means different things to different people. To some, it is dirty, dangerous, and disruptive and should be discouraged. To others, it is profitable and productive, or is simply the only way out of poverty.
According to Dr Aubynn, “most small scale miners operate illegally and they do not rehabilitate the area they exploit and the nuisance they cause is unbearable’’.
Atsu denies the accusation. ‘‘We refill the hole after using it’’, he claims. He says that, they pay stipends to land owners who are usually referred to as ‘Chiefs’. He says that occasionally ‘galamsey operators’ come together to contribute money to buy food items which they donate to the Prestea Government Hospital.
Dr Mahamadu Mbiniwaya, the Medical Superintendent of the hospital refuted this claim but however added that, “we can’t say they are not doing anything for the hospital but they are doing very little.”
Dr Mbiniwaya said that, presently the ‘galamsey’ operators are reconstructing the broken hospital kitchen wall and according to him, he has heard that the ‘galamsey’ operators assisted in the tiling of the bathroom for the hospital, but he bemoans the fatalities associated with illegal mining.
“The mining companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility projects has not been useful to us’’, Mr. Mohammed Pepluo, Tarkwa representative of WACAM – a Civil Society Organization, that advocates against negative impact of mining says.
According to Pelpuo, the School building, Palm tree cultivation and drilling of borehole provided by the Golden Resource mining company, were done without consulting the indigenes. He says that, water from the borehole is not wholesome and turns blueish when raw plantain in dropped into it.
Speaking to ghanabusinessnews.com in an interview, Mr Francis Sallah- the Regional Industrial Relation Officer for Western and Central Regions of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union of the Ghana Trade Union Congress (GTUC) said, ‘‘the ‘galamsey’ situation is a dicey one. What we term ‘galamsey’ is now being done by foreigners like the Chinese and this makes it even more precarious. If we ban them, they would go underground.”
He advises that, there should be a concerted effort to control them because their activities disturb the environment.
There is limited evidence of participatory integrated approaches that aim to promote and develop the sector through putting clear policies, strategies and implementation plans in place.
Dr Aubynn proposes that, these ‘galamseys’ should be motivated and regulated, because their contribution in developing the economy of the country would be enormous.
He regretted the fatalities that result from their activities and also proposes that a mining fund should be set up to take care of the streamlining of the activities of small scale mining.
Meanwhile, the Chamber has presented completed templates of security situations at affected mines to National Security on Lands, Forestry and Mines to help develop strategic plans to combat the menace, he said.
Astu says, if he makes enough money to start a super market, he will quit.
By Pascal Kelvin Kudiabor