Gold is booming. So is the dirty business of digging it up

Ghana, the largest gold producer on the continent, exemplifies Africa’s new gold rush. The gold price has doubled since 2019, to a record high of more than $2,700 per troy ounce, promising higher margins for industrial miners but also encouraging more artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Nearly half of the roughly 1,000 tonnes of gold produced in Africa every year is mined in this way. It is the largest source of jobs in rural Africa, save for farming, so a sustained gold boom could mean higher incomes for some very poor people. At the same time it could damage ecosystems and people’s health. Much ASM is legal, but a lot is untaxed and unregulated. In a report in May Swissaid, an NGO, estimated that the amount of smuggled gold more than doubled from 2012 to 2022. Once again, African states are missing out on the full benefits of a commodity boom.

The latest rush has several new elements. The first is the breadth of the irregularity: there are 12 countries, including Ghana, that each account for at least 20 tonnes of smuggled gold every year (see chart). The second is that, despite the artisanal label, a lot of ASM is fairly industrial, partly because of Chinese miners and their bulldozers and excavators. In Ghana some are infamous. Last year Aisha Huang, dubbed the “galamsey queen”, was sentenced to prison for mining without a licence, among other offences.

Another feature is the growth of Dubai as a refining hub. Gold exports from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) went up more than 60-fold between 2002 and 2022; gold is now the most valuable export from the UAE after hydrocarbon products. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, an NGO based in Geneva, argues that Dubai’s “no questions asked” approach to African gold encourages illicit trade. In 2022 around two-thirds of the African gold imported into the UAE was smuggled from African countries, according to Swissaid. (The UAE says it is not accountable for other countries’ records and that it is adopting policies to curb money-laundering using gold.)

Thousands of miles from the souks of Dubai, the gold rush is shaking up rural economies. Malian gold mines are sucking in workers from across the Sahel and, increasingly, northern Nigeria. In South Africa one industrial miner recorded 241% more incidents of illegal mining on its sites in the first quarter of 2024 compared with the same period the previous year. Some 10m people in sub-Saharan Africa work directly in ASM, several times more than two decades ago. Gavin Hilson, an expert on ASM based at the University of Surrey, argues that it is a lifeline for those in poverty. “A mine is often the only place in Africa where you will find someone with a master’s degree from Europe and an illiterate farmer.” He adds: “They all know the market price for gold. And even if you get 50% of that, you can pay school fees.”

Gold-mining and farming have long been complementary, with farmers topping up incomes in a lean season at mines or raising cash by leasing land. Yet, in Ghana as elsewhere, there is concern that the balance has been lost. Gold is often found in soils conducive to cocoa, the country’s third-largest export after gold and oil. The Ghana Cocoa Board, the country’s state-run buyer, says that galamsey is one reason why thousands of hectares of forests with cocoa have disappeared in recent years.

The failure of successive governments to formalise ASM has encouraged unsound mining practices. The Ghana Water Company, a local utility, has warned that around 60% of Ghana’s water bodies are polluted because of galamsey. Paul Ossei Sampene, a pathologist, says that the heavy metals used by miners are linked to miscarriages, stillbirths and birth defects.

Gold also funds wars. Jihadists control mines across the Sahel. In eastern Congo gold is fought over by militias and exported via Uganda or Rwanda. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of two main belligerents in Sudan’s civil war, are partly funded by gold. Wagner, the Russian mercenary group that fought with the RSF, controls mines in the Central African Republic.

Politicians have little incentive to curb mining. Members of Ghana’s ruling party have financial interests in the sector. Officials benefit from charging vast sums for licences. Last year “Gold Mafia”, a TV documentary by Al-Jazeera, a Qatari channel, scared Zimbabwe’s ruling party enough for a bigwig to threaten to disconnect the satellite dishes of locals watching it. In Lesotho political parties have links with gangs that control access to abandoned mines in neighbouring South Africa.

There have been various international efforts to make supply chains more transparent and encourage due diligence by buyers. Plenty of laws ostensibly regulate ASM. But in practice the mix of a light, meltable metal with a record price, willing buyers and weak African states means it has been hard to stop smuggling. While there is money to be made, there will be grey markets in the yellow metal.

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