cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/57377040

Ghanaian authorities are promising to punish Chinese nationals involved in illegal gold mining as the government tries to reduce the environmental and societal damage being caused by the small-scale mining known as galamsey.

“The laws of Ghana will deal ruthlessly with Chinese nationals engaged in illegal mining,” Dr. Hannah Louisa Bissiw-Kotei, administrator for Ghana’s Mineral Development Fund, said during a recent media briefing.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have attempted to deflect blame from Chinese nationals goldmining in the country, saying the Ghanaian government and its people are the ones behind illegal gold mining and the damage it causes.

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Observers say that many of the Chinese nationals caught at galamsey sites are poorly educated people from rural parts of China, suggesting that there is an organized system to recruit them and bring them to Ghana. From 2008 to 2013, over 50,000 Chinese nationals entered the country to mine gold illegally.

The ongoing crackdown on galamsey has netted dozens of Chinese nationals in recent months.

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In June, four Chinese men were arrested and led in handcuffs from a mining site in Atatam, a community in the Ashanti region, according a video published by GhanaWeb.

An earlier galamsey raid in Bui Sobinso ended with 14 Chinese nationals arrested.

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Galamsey has a long history in Ghana but has grown into a crisis with the arrival of tens of thousands Chinese nationals and the increase in gold prices to more than $3,300 per ounce ($107 per gram). In the Ashanti region, galamsey mining is poisoning water sources with mercury, stripping forests and eroding the soil.

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Illegal Mining in Ghana destroys over 100 acres of Eastern Region farmland, a report says.

… The rapid expansion of unregulated mining continues to strip vital agricultural land, severely compromising local food production and degrading critical ecosystems across regional farming communities …

In response to environmental exploitation and wildlife protection challenges, conservation enforcement faces heightened risks, underscored by the recent fatal shooting of a Ghanaian forestry officer by poachers. As environmental damage threatens community livelihoods across Ghana, policy discussions are simultaneously highlighting the need for strategic resource governance—such as shifting toward coordinated regional value chains for critical green energy transition minerals like lithium, and prioritizing sustainable developmental investments.

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However, the galamsey threat goes beyond Ghana’s borders, according to a research by award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Edem Srem.

“[Galamsey] supports a sprawling illicit economy involving hundreds of thousands of miners, transnational financiers, foreign operators, gold smugglers, equipment suppliers, and criminal intermediaries,” Srem wrote in a July 21 report for the Africa Center for Strategic Studies about his native Ghana …

As the continent’s leading gold producer, Ghana has experienced a large expansion of artisanal and small-scale gold mining. With $11 billion in foreign exchange earnings in 2025, small-scale mining eclipsed for the first time the country’s industrial gold mining output of $9 billion …

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