Environmental Impact of Lefa Gold Mining on Its Local Population, Republic of Guinea

Benjamin Kolie,Geoffrey Sunahara,Jun Yao,Lucie Duonamou

doi:10.4236/nr.2019.108020

Abstract

Republic of Guinea’s environmental situation is characterized by the continued degradation of natural resources. Lefa gold mine is one of the Guinean Republic’s gold companies which support the socioeconomic improvement. It operates in the northeastern part of the country and extracts the ore gold by open pit method by using cyanide. The exploitation of the Lefa Gold Mine impacts the natural resources and the surrounding population. This paper considers the impact of Lefa Gold Mine activities on the environment and its local population including ecological disturbance, destruction of fauna and flora, land and landscape degradation. The study was carried out in April to July 2013 in two villages, Fayalala Carrefour, and Lèro Karta. Questionnaires were illustrated for data collection, and the proposed sampling size number (1204 respondents) consisted of the two villages and the surrounding villages was founded on the proximity to the mine sites and their degree of suffering after a direct impact of mining activities. 961 (79.82% of respondents) adhered to the research to provide information about the situation. The principal objective of this paper was to provide new information on the problems existing in the achievement of mining policies that will help to mitigate the environmental impacts of gold mining activities on the local population. From the respondents, the results showed that the Lefa gold mine’s activities contaminated the farmland (31.21%), allowed the extinction of many animals and plant species (28.19%), which caused the change of the landscape of the study area. However, the most important situation was the life of the surrounding population. Therefore, the study has proposed a serial of recommendation to help Lefa gold mine reduce the impact of their activities on the environment and local population.

Highlights

Natural resource exploitation is a fundamental condition for human living, historically humans have manipulated natural resources to obtain the materials they need, these natural resources are divided into two, the exhaustible such as minerals and the inexhaustible, such as forest and grassland [1]
This paper considers the impact of Lefa Gold Mine activities on the environment and its local population including ecological disturbance, destruction of fauna and flora, land and landscape degradation
The SMD Lefa gold mine is for Guinea and the local population a source of income, which is explained by job creation, the increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) and, the raising of the standard of living of the population

Summary

Introduction

Natural resource exploitation is a fundamental condition for human living, historically humans have manipulated natural resources to obtain the materials they need, these natural resources are divided into two, the exhaustible such as minerals and the inexhaustible, such as forest and grassland [1]. Apart from Ghana, Mali, and Burkina Faso, Guinea is one of the top gold producers in Africa [4]. This potential has been proved by the recent gold discoveries of commercially viable gold deposits as a result of the increased gold exploration activities in the country. The increase of these activities is accompanied by soil degradation and vegetation cover, leading to global phenomena erosion, disturbance of water regimes, loss of soil fertility, and disappearance of important fractions of biodiversity [5]

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