Environmental Impacts of Artisanal Gold Mining: A case study of Nkaseim Community - Ghana

Abstract

Artisanal gold mining [AGM] has numerous socio-economic benefits to communities involved. However, the four environmental variables or constructs used revealed that AGM significantly affects the environment. In other words; despite a source of livelihood; AGM communities are besieged with issues such as water pollution, land degradation and air pollution which affect almost all facets of the environment including humans. Most miners have no idea about alternative technologies to make AGM sustainable, yet Ghana ranks next to South Africa as the highest producers of gold in Africa. This paper, therefore, discusses the consequences of AGM for stakeholders to regularize AGM activities; and adopt alternative methods to mitigate the damage caused to the environment.

Keywords: Artisanal gold mining, environmental impacts, regularize, pollution