Gold!

Gold

Gold evokes images of shining, clean, pure metal, enhancing precious stones, decorating and worn with pride, brilliant, light reflecting. Jewellery, status symbol trophies and the like remain the premium use for gold, but the non-reactive metal is also used in our electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, televisions, for dentistry, in medical procedures and equipment and in the aerospace industry.

Gold mining, by contrast, is dusty, noisy, destructive and, when unregulated, deadly dangerous.

Photo- Internet-Youga website

A recent journey across the border, to look at a controlled mine, operating within government and international legislations, left me with overwhelming impressions of dust, of noise, of mountains of explosive-shattered rocks, a site devoid of living things. The Youga mine, 90% owned by Endeavour (registered in the Cayman Islands), is within Burkina Faso but near to the Ghana border and Zebilla.  Health and Safety practices are strictly observed, (cyanide is used in the processing), and environmental controls are in place. But taking 1 ton of gold ore rock to yield 5 grams of gold, damage to the environment is inevitable. The staff are drawn from the locality of south eastern Burkina Faso and northern eastern Ghana, with mainly Anglophone management from Scotland, Ireland, England, Australia and Canada; a medley  of languages and accents perform. The rock crushing plant operates 24/7, 365 days a year, while the quarrying and load moving relies on heavy duty machinery and vehicles- with tyres bigger than a 6 foot male. Costs of $700 to produce 1 ounce of gold- trading at $1200- give a decent profit margin. (Apologies for shifts in scales of measurement.)

Gold ore is quarried-photo-Youga website

Ore is moved to crushing machines and stored as flattened mountains. Photo-internet-Youga web site

Locally, and across Ghana, the country known as Gold Coast in colonial times, there are official, industrial scale mines, but also many local, small scale “Galamsey” operations. The latter are notorious for wrecking the environment, and as mercury is used by miners to extract gold from crushed ore, the potential for poisoning is ever present. Production costs may be minimized by using trafficked child labour, and typical, well documented problems of child and female abuse, violence and accidents persist.

Photos- internet

As reported in Ghana news media recently, (Ghana Chronicle June 2013) the two sectors can overlap with antagonism, as fundamental questions of who owns and can profit from gold are played out. ChinaGold, through subsidiaries, has invested over $50million in installing a processing plant at mining sites in a neighbouring district, under the agreement of national and local administrations, but in conflict with small scale Galamsey mine owners. In protest, with actions causing destruction and damage estimated at several million dollars and the theft of explosives and five drilling machines, local miners and small company owners demonstrated their opposition to the proposed industrial scale mine. Counter charges from ChinaGold saying that generous compensation had already been paid out indicate the complexity of stories surrounding this development and an uncertainty of the truth.

The wealthy international companies, with spending power to meet local needs, and with aid to schools and public services, are in the stronger position to eventually succeed in their quest for mining rights and the proceeds.

Photo- Anglo-Gold Ashanti website

The Ghana government holds a 10% stake in 6 of the 10 major mines owned internationally within Ghana. With Ghana in the top 20 gold producing countries globally and second to South Africa within Africa, this precious metal yields valuable income, but as with the forthcoming promise of exploitable oil and gas reserves, how benefits accrue to the general population remains a political discussion to be long argued over.