Abstract
While in recent years there has been a growing awareness among mining companies of the need to address physical injuries and environmental issues, there remains a lack of knowledge about how psychosocial risks independently and in conjunction with physical risks affect the health, general well-being and quality of life of mine workers. A cross sectional survey was administered to 330 employees of five large scale mining companies producing three different mineral products (gold, manganese and bauxite) to examine physical and psychosocial hazards in the Ghanaian mining industry and their potential impact on the quality of life and general well-being of employees. Responses from 307 participants showed mining equipment, ambient conditions, and work demands and control as being significant predictors of quality of life and general well-being after controlling for demographics. Age as a demographic variable also had important implications, with older workers experiencing better well-being and quality of life. Implications of findings for the mining sector in Ghana and other developing countries are discussed as a starting point towards developing further initiatives in this area.
Highlights
Mining involves the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam (Pule, 2011)
The eight items of the general health and well-being scale were subjected to a principal component analysis
The results indicated that even though all the three physical hazard factors had significant positive relationships with poor general well-being on the zero order correlation, only hazardous mining equipment (β =.254, p
Summary
Mining involves the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam (Pule, 2011). Whether this is achieved underground or at ground level, mining exposes workers to potentially hazardous environments and conditions using potentially hazardous tools and materials (Pule, 2011), with a high incidence of injury recorded across all mining divisions (Ghosh et al, 2004). In 2010 the mining industry contributed over 49% of the country’s gross foreign exchange earnings (Owiredu, 2011). The legal Ghanaian mining industry employs over 12,000 people across a wide spectrum of roles, with 98% of those employed being Ghanaian nationals (Owiredu, 2011)
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