Illegal mining is going to cost us more colossal damage than we can fathom now.
The continual perpetuation of this menace without a decisive check or truncation is going to lead to a major health disaster, and so this is a clarion call on the government and the necessary authorities to maximise their efforts to avert the catastrophic situation that awaits the nation if this menace is not abruptly stopped.
As a trained metallurgical engineer, I know that minerals do not benefit anyone if they remain under the earth’s crust, but the problem and challenge is the crooked methods being deployed without any regard for the environment.
Mining requires a lot of water for the beneficiation process to liberate the gold and get it extracted.
But, unlike the large-scale mines, the Illegal miners, or galamseyers, are not prepared to invest in the construction of dams, into which they might harvest water or collect water to use for their washing process on the trommels.
They want to spend little, but expect much return from their gold exploitation.
The large mines have to post reclamation bonds just to ensure that the EPA is certain they will reclaim the land after the mining ceases or is decommissioned. But the galamseyers do none of these.
The use of mercury during the amalgamation process ends up releasing mercury into the atmosphere, since the mercury is used to separate the quartz or rock, which has a specific gravity of around 2.65 and mercury, 13.6 and gold, 19.3.
This allows the gold that is mixed with the sand to sink when placed in mercury, and then the quartz floats to the top of the mercury.
The gold, together with the mercury, is then subjected to heating, which allows the mercury to sublime, leaving the raw gold.
This, in effect, is the amalgamation process.
Mercury
Mercury and the other heavy metals, such as manganese, cadmium, zinc, nickel, arsenic and cobalt, usually associated with the gold ore, are liberated during the beneficiation process and released into the water bodies into which the slurries are discharged.
These metals usually percolate and permeate the water table and can be transported to quite some distance from their point of discharge. Polluting underground water courses.
The effects of mercury and other metals are widely known.
These are effects on the nervous system, the digestive system, the immune system, lungs, kidneys, skin, eyes, and sometimes converting into Minamata disease, when swallowed by fish, which is very deadly to human beings.
The other heavy metals, such as cadmium, lead, arsenic, manganese, and cobalt, lead to various organ damage, which affects the cardiovascular system and increases the risk of cancer.
Death warrant
These galamseyers have already signed their death warrant through their exposure to these chemicals and heavy metals through their greed and quest to get rich quickly.
But, they are not creating death for themselves alone, but are poisoning the entire water system, both surface and underground, which is going to lead to a major health disaster in the near future.
This is why the call for a state of emergency is required in these areas of the galamsey sites to ensure the war zones that they have created are really turned on them, and they are being dealt with.
Because even our enemies would have spared us this agony if we were to be at war. They need to be targeted and shot at to eliminate them before they extinct the entire generation now and/or future generations.
Ghana is already battling with climate change risks such as erratic rainfall patterns, rise in temperatures, sea rise and coastal erosions, floods, as well as droughts, with worse predictions for the future, which would have imminent health effects in the various ecological regions of the country.
These risks, including loss of biodiversity and forest cover, which is being exacerbated by the galamsey menace, would create enormous health effects with their associated health cost, which will impact the already stressed health budget of the nation.
The nation as a whole must, with the steering of its leaders, face these challenges head-on now, before the situation gets out of hand and the very severe consequences overwhelm us. Let’s act now before it is too late.
Gideon Etornam Amenuveve
Certified Fellow and global business analyst (FCGBA)
etorgido@gmail.com
