Iron ore majors ramp up supply even as China faces challenges
Iron ore is one of the year’s worst performing major commodities, slumping by almost a quarter as China’s property crisis drags on.
At least 14 illegal miners are trapped underground in a mine in Ghana since Sunday, after an 80-metre deep pit caved due to heavy rains over the weekend.
A total of 19 men are believed to have been working at the pit when the accident happened, but only five have been rescued so far, Prime News Ghana reports.
Illegal gold mining is a ramping issue at Africa’s second largest gold producer. Last year, it caused the state to lose $2.3bn in revenue.
Illegal gold mining is a ramping issue at Africa’s second largest gold producer, and it has fuelled violence and pollution. In May, Ghana’s government suspended licences for small-scale operations, mostly run by Chinese businessmen, in an attempt to crackdown on the illicit activity.
The measure has exacerbated long-dragged resentment from locals towards Chinese nationals, who they blame for the devastating consequences of the illicit activity.
Last year, illegal mining caused the state to lose $2.3 billion in revenue, data from Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources shows. In comparison, Ghana’s legal gold exports brought $3.2 billion last year to the government coffers.
Facing mounting tensions, violence, and pollution, Ghana has stepped up the arrest and deportation of those illegal foreign miners in recent years. In June and July 2013 alone more than 4,500 illegal Chinese gold miners were deported. More recently, in August 2016, the government expelled about 30 illegal miners, the majority of them Chinese.
Ghana relies on China for billions of dollars in loans and commerce, as the country is its biggest trading partner. The crackdown on illegal foreign miners, experts agree, threatens to make the situation increasingly difficult for Ghana, particularly as the illicit extraction of gold has become an economic lifeline in the country’s rural areas.
3 Comments
Diddley
Who are those “experts”? Are they suggesting that because China is a big trading partner its citizens should be allowed to commit crimes with impunity? Try that in China…..what an utter nonsense. Deport them and check whose pockets they lined with Dollars to get away with it for so long. Government officials must be complicit.
PRINCE A D GAISIE
Gold Price was $1900 per ounce in November 2011 from kitco.com data and that started the droves into major mining areas . When Ashanti Goldfields was 100 years of operations a book was written and the back of the book it started Word of west African gold reached Europe from the Phoenicians who sailed around its coast more than a 1000years before CHRIST . It means gold from West Africa has been going for over 3000 years and there us no end in sight . So why do we fashion a proper to do this business with destroying water and doing it unsafely that lead to such incidents or accidents. We have stop this GALAMSEY and find a better of doing this job safely and sustainably
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