Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Ghana

Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in

GhanaDecember 18, 2015

Caitlin Sellers, Deme Yoo, and Patrick Wyatt

Background

• Ghana has the second largest deposit of gold in Africa

• 9th largest producer of gold in 2011

• Small workforce, but produces 34% of total exports

• Approximately 1/3 of gold revenues come from informal sector

Problem

• What’s an “artisanal” mine?• Small-scale (usually illegal) mining operation

• Miners are unregistered• Don’t pay government taxes• Many localized districts• No oversight

• Rudimentary practices• Environmental and safety concerns• Child labor

Our Approach

• Proposal for USAID• In line with Ghana Development Objectives

• Focus on information transparency

• Integrate and license artisan miners

• Build on existing solutions with additional technology

Technical Solution

• SAP – Enterprise Resource Planning

• Cloud Backed Mobile Technology

• Open Data

• GIS

• Social Networking

Capacity Building

• Leveraging decentralized governance

• Traditional authorities

Thanks!