Conflict, collusion and corruption in small-scale gold mining: Chinese miners and the state in Ghana

ABSTRACT

As gold prices soared from 2008 onwards, tens of thousands of foreign miners, especially from China, entered the small-scale mining sector in Ghana, despite it being ‘reserved for Ghanaian citizens’ by law. A free-for-all ensued in which Ghanaian and Chinese miners engaged in both contestation and collaboration over access to gold, a situation described as ‘out of control’ and a ‘culture of impunity’. Where was the state? This paper addresses the question of how and why pervasive and illicit foreign involvement occurred without earlier state intervention. Findings indicate that the state was not absent. Foreign miners operated with impunity precisely because they were protected by those in authority, that is, public officials, politicians and chiefs, in return for private payments. Explaining why state institutions failed in their responsibilities leads to reflection about the contemporary state in Ghana. It is concluded that the informality and corruption characteristic of neopatrimonialism remains predominant over legal–rational structures, albeit in a form that has adapted to neoliberal restructuring. Public office remains a means of private enrichment rather than public service. Such findings cast a shadow over the state and government in Ghana, and tarnish its celebration as a model of democratic governance for Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Artisanal and small-scale mining
• Ghana
• Chinese miners
• the state and corruption
• neopatrimonialism

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the International Growth Centre, Ghana, for financial support for this project grant number E-33110-GHA-1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Teschner (2012) was specifically talking about the area around Tarkwa, a centre of artisanal mining in southern Ghana.

2 All gold prices taken from http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/monthly_graphs.plx

3 It is a matter of fact that many Chinese miners (illegally) armed themselves with guns – a Chinese respondent stated that they had weapons ‘from the very beginning’. This was seen as justified in order to protect themselves in often isolated mining sites in the bush. The same Chinese respondent also stated that the Chinese response would be to seek compromise where violence was threatened. (Interview 6).

4 ‘Two Chinese miners were allegedly shot and killed when suspected armed robbers stormed their camp at Nkoranza, near Subin in the Upper Denkyira West District of the Central Region on Monday- New Year's eve. Li Jian Sheng, believed to be in his late 40s, and Li Chao Hua, 35, worked with Hansol Small Scale Mining Company as senior consultants’ (Daily Guide 4.01.13). In its report, the Daily Guide stated that ‘The Ghana-China Friendship Union (GCFU) put the figures of Chinese nationals killed by armed robbers at the mining sites at 87’ (Daily Guide 4.01.13, cited in Modern Ghana 4.01.13). While such attacks undoubtedly occurred, this figure of 87 deaths of Chinese nationals remains unconfirmed and uncorroborated, and would seem to be an exaggeration, given that such high numbers of armed robbery and deaths would have been extensively covered in the Ghanaian media.

5 In another interesting study of Ghanaian perceptions of Chinese migrants, undertaken by a Chinese postgraduate researcher, Liu Shaonan, it was similarly noted that coverage of Chinese miners in the Daily Graphic during May–June 2013 was entirely negative in tone and used the word ‘illegal’ in all 22 stories (Liu 2014). The author states that the narrative of the reports created an impression that ‘illegal Chinese miners’ were responsible for ‘land degradation, water pollution, robbery and shooting, the loss of national wealth and a breakdown of Ghanaian law’, with no mention of Ghanaian counterparts or collaborators (Liu 2014, p. 3). The focus on the Chinese miners as separate actors, disconnected from their Ghanaian collaborators at various levels of Ghanaian society and government, entails dangers of misrepresentation and the scapegoating of foreigners for national problems.