Chinese participation in Ghana's illegal small-scale gold mining: Linking local pull factors to distributional inequities

Abstract

Growing attention paid to the environmental impacts associated with informal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in Ghana has sparked debate about the recent proliferation of Chinese migrants in the sector. This paper contributes to this discussion by focusing on local pull factors, particularly, those that relate to distributional inequity in Ghanaian mining policy and how they serve as catalyst for illegal mining. Findings from qualitative exploratory case studies reveal that illegal Chinese ASM is caused by local grievances and resistance to systemic distributional inequities in Ghana's mineral policy on two related fronts, including inequitable mineral wealth distribution, and inequitable mining land regime. These findings suggest that policy efforts to find a lasting solution to illegal foreign ASM, and illegal mining in the broader sense, should engage and collaborate with all the relevant local stakeholders to address these distributional inequities.