Ghana’s gold puts child miners at risk

Emmanuel Kofi is eleven years old. His childhood ended three years ago.

The boy left school to work in a small-scale gold mine, one of thousands of children in Ghana exploited for cheap labour posing great risks to his health and cuts short his education.

Emmanuel stands from dawn until dusk in dirty water at a gold processing site in central Brong Ahafo province, one of Ghana’s most important gold regions.

His job is to pan for ore and wash it on a wooden board.

Dressed in a ripped T-shirt, Emmanuel collects tiny gold particles in a towel, which he then mixes with mercury with his bare hands, and burns the amalgam to separate out the gold.

“I see accidents. People get hurt. It scares me,” he whispers shyly in the local language, Twi.

Ghana is the world’s tenth largest gold producer, according to a 2015 United States geological survey, exporting, mainly to Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, India, Turkey, Lebanon and the United States.

From here, the precious metal is bought by banks, jewellers and the electronics industry.

Roughly a third of Ghana’s gold comes from small-scale mines, like the one where Emmanuel works, with a trade value of more than US$1.5bil (RM6.16bil) dollars per year, according to Ghana’s minerals commission.

Human Rights Watch researcher Juliane Kippenberg has spoken to many traders across Ghana.

“They said they did not attempt to find out about labour conditions or the legality of the mine,” Kippenberg says.

Emmanuel earns about US$2.50 (RM10.27) for a day’s work. It provides him with three square meals per day, a luxury when he was still in school.

Of the 120 people who work with Emmanuel at the gold processing site, roughly a third are children and teenagers.

Site manager Emmanuel Appiah seems blissfully unaware of Ghana’s Children’s Act and international laws prohibiting mine workers under the age of 18.

He also sells liquid mercury to his workers, including to children.

“I know it can kill you, if you work with it for a long time,” says Richmond Asiamah, a 15-yearold mine worker.

Richmond is one of the few workers who understands the dangers of mercury, which can cause lifelong disability, brain damage and even death.

In addition, Richmond risks injuries from carrying heavy loads, mine collapses, explosions and sharp tools, as well as respiratory diseases from dust.

“I don’t want to work here, but I have to,” he explains. Since his father died, his mother struggles to feed her eight children.

“We know it’s a serious problem,” Lisbeth Akanbombiri, the head of a child labour unit within the Labour Ministry in the capital, Accra, says.

Over the past years, they set up committees to remove children from gold mines. But there is a major stumbling block.

“We have no budget, and that is why most of the committees are not operational,” says Akanbombiri.

“Funding is a major problem, even at national level.”

A 2014 government survey found about 14% of them do hazardous work, including mining. — dpa