Ghana struggles to manage illegal mining operations

As the afternoon sun beats down on Gold Fields’ sprawling Tarkwa gold mine in southwestern Ghana, three men launch a drone into the clear sky, its cameras scanning the lush 210-square-kilometre tract for intruders.

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The drone spotted something unusual, and within 20 minutes a 15-person team including armed police arrived on the scene. They discovered abandoned clothing, freshly dug trenches, and rudimentary equipment amid pools of mercury and cyanide-contaminated water. The equipment was left behind by so-called wildcat miners, who operate on the outskirts of many of the continent's official mining ventures — putting at risk their own health, the environment and the official mine operator's profits.

The team confiscated seven diesel-powered water pumps and a “chanfan” processing unit used to extract gold from riverbeds. The high-tech cat-and-mouse game is playing out with increasing frequency as record gold prices, now sitting above $3,300 per ounce, draw more unofficial activity — intensifying sometimes deadly confrontations between corporate concessions and artisanal miners in West Africa, according to dozens of mining executives and industry experts interviewed by Reuters.

“Because of the vegetation cover, if you don't have eyes in the air, you won't know something destructive is happening,” explains Edwin Asare, Gold Fields Tarkwa Mine’s head of protection services. “It's like you first get eyes in the sky to help you put boots on the ground.” Almost 20 illicit miners have been killed in confrontations at major mining operations across the region since late 2024, including at Newmont and Anglo Gold Ashanti' sites in Ghana and Guinea and Nordgold’s Bissa Mine in Burkina Faso.

There have been no reports of official mine staff injured. In some cases, clashes at corporate mines caused production halts of up to a month, prompting companies to press governments for more military protection.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s unofficial mining operations provide critical income for nearly 10 million people, according to a May United Nations report.