The reality behind digging for a living

IT is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of artisan miners or ‘galamsey’ operating in Ghana.

“They just walk up (to the mines) and don’t respect the concession laws. Then there’s prostitution, child labour, drug abuse . . . all social vices,” said association general secretary Eric Coffie Rivers.

The association has nearly 150,000 licensed member miners and illegal miners. Many of them face huge risks using dynamite to get at gold and mercury to clean it.

It wants educational workshops for illegal miners on safety and rights on buying. Education could also limit child labour which is “rampant”, says Mr Coffie Rivers.

In more than 35 degree Celsius heat, young miners – boys and girls – work in harsh conditions piling rock and mud into engine-run crushers all day long.

The screeching sounds of machinery often continue throughout the night with workers dozing for just a few hours next to mine holes.

In Dadieso, a small illegal mine in south west Ghana, the risks and devastating consequences of the perilous trade are visible. Red-eyed men smelling of drink work side by side with young women carrying babies on their backs. Lost in a world of dust, glittery rock and desperate endless hours of cutting out the rock, the zombie-like diggers barely stop to talk.

Ten men and women miners died there in June last year when a wall of rock collapsed on them.

Nana Yaw, 38, knows the risks but often must work from 8am to 4am taking only a few hours rest.

The married father-of-two turned to illegal mining three years ago after losing his job at a pharmaceutical firm. “My wife says she is worried, wanting me to spend time away from the job as it’s very risky.”

The ore he hammers out of the pit is picked up by Comfort Ganyaglo, a 22-year-old mother of two.

Carrying a pot of rocks on her head, she briefly stops to explain: “What I really want to do is go and learn a trade, like hairdressing.”

Comfort, who has been an illegal miner for over a year, earns just nine cedis (€4.70) a day carrying rock from dawn to dusk.

This project was funded by the SIMON CUMBERS MEDIA CHALLENGE fund, supported by Irish Aid.