Comparison between artisanal and smallscale mining in Ghana and South Africa: lessons learnt and ways forward
AA Debrah, I Watson, DPO Quansah
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) plays a fundamental role in the
national and local economies of resource-rich countries in Africa. As such,
more effort must be geared towards fostering this type of economic activity
to sustain livelihoods in rural communities. Across Africa, efforts to
operationalize ASM based on a sustainable development framework have
been quite tedious and often ineffective. This is because most of these
frameworks lacked context and an understanding of the continuum from
the artisanal through small-scale and up to the junior miner, grouped under
the general term ‘ASM’. Driven by the need to contextualize some of the
definitional issues in this niche sector, and gain a clearer understanding of
their peculiar challenges, this paper aims to contribute to the debate on
ASM by considering two of Africa’s resource-rich countries – Ghana and
South Africa. Since South Africa has made greater inroads in protecting the
interests of small-scale miners, we thus draw comparisons from both
countries’ approach to ASM, outline the lessons learnt, and provide
recommendations regarding the ways forward.
Keywords: artisanal and small-scale mining, ASM, poverty reduction, legal framework,
value addition, support structures.