THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF MINING ACTIVITIES ON INDIGENIOUS COMMUNITIES

THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF MINING ACTIVITIES ON INDIGENIOUS COMMUNITIES [THE CASE OF NEWMONT GOLD (Gh) LIMITED]

Code No: 289703

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ABSTRACT

The study explores and assesses mining and its impacts on communities within which mining activities takes place. The focus has been on a mining community in Ghana called Kenyasi where mining is vigorously carried out by an American mining giant, Newmont Mining Corporation. The study investigates the real and latent impacts of mining activities on the community in the light of the numerous promises and prospects that mining is said to provide for communities.

Mining for many decades served as an important component of countries? revenue source especially for developing countries that have been endowed with the mineral wealth. If properly managed, countries can grow their economies with proceeds from mining activities in the form of royalties and foreign exchange earnings for the export of mineral related products. Such benefits from the mining sector have in most cases been used as justification and a social license for exploration and exploitation of minerals in most communities.

Nonetheless, in as much as the mining sector have contributed and continually contributes to the economies of mineral endowed countries, one cannot lose sight of the fact that the very nature of mining itself in terms of the lifecycle of mining from discovery to closure seriously impacts on the lives of the communities in which it is undertaken. From the prospecting stages through the construction of mining infrastructure and the actual mining itself carries diverse impacts on communities that can very devastating on the one hand and developmental on the other hand. Usually the impacts are environmental and social in nature and it is these impacts, real or imagined that this study sought to unravel.

The environmental and social impacts can to a larger extent change the dynamics of community living and can make the lives of its residents better or worse. The way these impacts are managed by the communities and the mining company involved can either further worsen or make lives rather better for the community and its residents. This calls for drastic attention being paid to issues of Corporate Social Responsibility where mining companies make great efforts in honouring its social obligations to the communities of operation. One way has been the development of Alternative Livelihood Strategies or Coping Mechanisms by mining companies with the view to cushioning people from the adverse impacts of their mining activities as it is done in Kenyasi by Newmont Mining Company and even the community residents themselves. Although most mining companies have carried out these strategies with good intent, it has been realized that mostly, the strategies fail because they lack what has come to be known as Community Participation. The study has paid particular attention to this issue of Community Participation and how its application to the various impact management strategies devised by Newmont in particular as a corporate entity has helped in managing the social and environmental impacts of mining in Kenyasi.

CHAPTER 1

1.1. Background

Many countries such as Ghana and South Africa consider their mineral wealth an asset, which could be used and in fact is used to stimulate or enhance their economic growth potential and also to steer their economies into greater levels of development. In countries such as Mongolia, the mining sector is said to account for about 17 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 65 percent of industrial value added and 58 percent of export, hence making it the largest contributor to the Mongolian national economy (The World Bank, 2006:1). Furthermore, mining has played a significant role in the development process of a country like Ghana that is rated second after South Africa in terms of gold production on the African continent (Akabzaa &Darimani, 2001: 4). Mate notes that mineral wealth in the form of gold, bauxite, diamond and manganese abound in larger quantities and have been a major foreign exchange earner for the Ghanaian economy (Mate, 2002: 3) whereas as at 1999, the mining sector alone had attracted over US$3 billion worth of foreign direct investment and accounting for a whopping 30 percent of gross foreign exchange earnings (Akabzaa & Darimani, 2001: 4). This shows the significant contributions the mining sector has played in the lives of most countries especially the developing ones that have been blessed with their precious metals and resources.

However, like all other industries and sectors, the mining sector is also bereft with its own problems and challenges. The “footprints” it usually leaves behind are tremendous

especially when it is not managed well because „badly managed impacts of mining on the environment or the social fabrics of society can reflect negatively on economic parameters countrywide? (World Bank & International Finance Corporation, 2002: 2) and can allow many communities to become poorer with little access to resources especially when mining ventures fail (Kapelus, 2001: 1).In fact, it is observed that “to date, mining has a poor record in terms of its contribution to sustainable development, with few communities receiving significant benefit and mining sites experiencing lasting negative ramifications” (Reed & Miranda, 2007: 15). Although in recent times most mining companies have taken giant steps in reducing or mitigating the devastation effects of their activities in the communities and areas of operation by developing comprehensive Impact Assessment studies and strategies for dealing with the effects as well as massive investment in infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, schools, electricity, water supplies etc, as a means

to at least to offset some of the cost of mining activities, it is noted that most of “these communities have been victims of air and water pollution as well as other forms of environmental degradation resulting from mining operations” (Akabzaa &Darimani, 2001: 34). Mining can therefore have “decisive impact on the communities in which or near which the mines are located” (Anyemedu, 1992 cited in Akabzaa & Darimani, 2001: 34).

Though it is true that economies needs these mineral resources and the proceeds accrued from them to satisfy their basic needs, it is also true that the continual exploitation of the mineral resources is destroying the livelihoods and environments of the communities where mining activities or operations are carried out and had been the root cause of civil unrest and wars, widespread human right abuses, poisoning of people and environment, deforestation as well as forest degradation in many communities and countries (Gualnam, 2008:1). So, to what extent is mining impacting on indigenous peoples and their communities?

In order to understand the extent and nature of mining impacts unleashed on indigenous communities where mining operations are carried out, my topic of research is as follows: The Social and Environmental Impacts of Mining Activities on Indigenous Communities: The case of Newmont Gold (Gh) Limited (Kenyasi) in Ghana.

This topic is of much interest to me considering the ever increasing news on both electronic and print media of agitation by mining communities in Ghana about impacts of mining operations on their livelihood. It is believed that at the end of the research, both the manifest and latent environmental and social impacts of the activities of mining companies particularly Newmont Gold Ghana Limited in the Ahafo project site of Kenyasi would be established and brought to light and attention of the appropriate authorities drawn to it so that the necessary measures would be adopted to either prevent or manage the impacts. My empirical approach would be qualitative with a combination of qualitative data collection methods of interviews, participant observation and focus group discussion to help me understand the real situation causing such agitations in communities where mining is carried out.