The families are paying the price over the long term

THE damaging nature of large-scale mining operations in Ghana in recent years has attracted international attention, including concerns of human rights advocates, environmentalists and even United Nations health specialists.

Companies have been accused of paying whole villages paltry amounts of cash for lands and of using brutal security tactics to protect gold plots. Villagers say mines and the cyanide liquid used to extract gold from the rock is spreading disease.

Ghana is the second biggest producer of gold in Africa after South Africa. Most of its gold is exported to or gets refined in Europe, according to the Ghana Chamber of Mines.