Economic Impact of Small Skill Mining on Rural Communities

by Yasser Arafat Tackie, Rita Immaculate, Salomey Korkor Aperkor

It was evidence that Small Scale Gold mining operations have impacted so much on the economic activities of the people as well as the negative impacts on the environment all though it has provided an employment avenue for the working force thereby raising the living standards of the small-scale mining of precious minerals predates the advent of mechanized mining in Ghana. While the implements used in such mining activities have continued to be largely rudimentary, the recent trend has been the gradual upgrading of both equipment and methods of degrees of environmental damage, which have been associated with such operations, have been a source of concern to Government. However, given the potential socio-economic benefits of the activity, the Government of Ghana has initiated measures to mitigate these negative environmental impacts. Such measures include field extension services, training programmes and the development of other supporting infrastructure.