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Economic pressures drive artisanal mining, impacting

corporate

operations

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Rising gold prices fuel conflicts between industrial and

informal miners

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Miners are pressing governments for military support to

defend

mines

By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila

TARKWA, Ghana, June 23 (Reuters) - 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-kilometer tract for

intruders.

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 ( NEM ) and AngloGold Ashanti's ( AU )

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.

'BOOTS ON THE GROUND'

Sub-Saharan Africa's unofficial mining operations provide

critical income for nearly 10 million people, according to a May

United Nations report.

In West Africa, three to five million people depend on

unregulated mining, accounting for approximately 30% of its gold

production, other industry data show, serving as economic

lifelines in a region with few formal employment opportunities.

Like 52-year old Famanson Keita in Senegal's gold-rich

Kedougou region, many inhabitants grew up mining gold in their

localities. With simple and traditional methods, they earned

extra incomes to supplement those from farming until corporate

miners arrived, relocating them from their communities and

promising jobs and rapid development.

"Those promises have not been fulfilled," said Keita. "Many

of our young people are employed in low-level, uncontracted jobs

with little pay and no stability. Small-scale farming alone

cannot sustain our families."

While local residents have long tried to eke out a living on

the margins of corporate mines, much of the illicit activity,

particularly in the region's forests and large bodies of water,

is now conducted with sophisticated digging and dredging

equipment and funding from local cartels and foreigners,

including from China.

ECONOMIC PRESSURES

With rising central bank gold buying and broader geopolitical

tensions potentially pushing gold to $5,000 an ounce,

Sahel-focused security and mining analyst Ulf Laessing warned

that more violent confrontations around mining operations could

be expected in the coming months.

"The more the gold price rises, the more conflicts we will

see between industrial and informal miners," said Laessing, head

of the Sahel program at Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Nine wildcat miners were shot dead in January at AGA's

Obuasi mine in Ghana when they cut open the fenced 110-square

kilometer concession to scavenge gold, according to a source in

the company who asked not to be identified.

At AGA's Siguiri Mine, northeast of Guinea, hundreds of

wildcat miners invaded the concession in February, prompting

military intervention, according to a source familiar with the

mine's operations.

At least three wildcat miners were shot by guards while

others were injured at Newmont's ( NEM ) Ahafo gold mining site in

northwestern Ghana in January, police said.

In Mali's gold-rich Kayes region, an excavator operator at

an illegal mining site in Kenieba told Reuters that operations

have expanded rapidly this year, with Chinese bosses deploying

more equipment to new sites as gold prices climb. Reuters could

not establish who such Chinese operators were, or whether they

have any links to companies or official organizations.

This year, Ghanaian authorities have been ransacking dozens

of informal mining sites, arresting hundreds of locals and

foreigners, particularly Chinese nationals, who operate

unregulated gold operations in the country's vast forests,

including protected areas and bodies of water.

"Because of porous borders and weak regulations, the majority of

their produce is smuggled," says Marc Ummel, researcher at

Swissaid, "depriving the countries of the full benefits." Ghana

lost more than 229 metric tons of largely artisanal gold to

smuggling between 2019 and 2023, according to Swissaid, which

analysed export data within the period.

Adama Soro, president of the West African Federation of

Chambers of Mines, said artisanal miners also compete with

large-scale miners for ore, shortening mines' lives. "We're

seeing artisanal miners digging up to 100 meters and impacting

the ore body of the big miners, so we're losing money," he said.

ARMED MILITARY PROTECTION

Miners are resorting to unconventional methods and increased

spending at the expense of investment and community projects,

said the head of a mining company in Ghana heavily affected by

wildcat miners.

The mine spends approximately half a million dollars

annually on measures, including drone surveillance to combat

wildcat mining, but still experiences frequent attacks, the

source said.

Nordgold, Galiano Gold ( GAU ), B2Gold ( BTG ) and Barrick

Gold ( B ) have all seen incursions recently.

Ghana's major corporate miners have intensified their

campaign for military protection at mining sites this year.

Similar requests have been made in Burkina Faso and Mali,

according to three mining executives and an industry analyst,

who requested anonymity.

"Ideally, we want military presence at all mining

operations, but we understand the need to prioritize sites

facing consistent attacks while implementing regular patrols at

others," said Ahmed Dasana Nantogmah, chief operating officer of

Ghana's Chamber of Mines.

Industry leaders met government officials in mid-April to

press their case, with discussions yielding "positive" results,

said Nantogmah.

Ghana's government did not respond to requests for comment.

Ghanaian authorities want miners to cover deployment costs,

estimated at 250,000 Ghana cedis ($18,116) per contingent daily

of under 50 personnel, said two mining executives who were part

of the negotiations.

Ghana's mining sector regulator, the Minerals Commission, is

taking a technological leap forward, establishing an AI-powered

control room to analyze data from 28 drones deployed to illegal

mining hotspots. The system includes trackers on the excavators

and a control system that can remotely disable excavators

operating outside authorized boundaries.

"This is a fight we can win with technology if we allow full

deployment," says Sylvester Akpah, consultant for Ghana's mining

sector regulator's drone surveillance and AI-powered project.