Ghana

The streets are hardly paved with gold. Despite producing gold on an industrial scale since 1873 – over nine million ounces’ worth – the place is really not much better off than the rest of the country. Scattered chunks of tarmac are the only evidence that the main road from Tarkwa to Prestea had once been paved.

[EARTHWORKS • FIAN-Germany • FIAN-Ghana • MiningWatch Canada • Oxfam America • WACAM] A group of Ghanaian and international organizations is calling for greater oversight of Golden Star Resources, a multinational mining company that is responsible for causing two cyanide spills in less than two years at its Bogoso/Prestea gold mine in Ghana. The US-Canadian mining company is a signatory to the International Cyanide Management Code, a voluntary initiative for the gold mining industry intended to improve the management of cyanide at gold mines and reduce the incidents of accidents such as cyanide spills. The civil society organizations are urging the International Cyanide Management Institute (ICMI) to immediately audit the Bogoso/Prestea mine and take steps to ensure that local communities are protected from cyanide exposure. As the administrator of the Cyanide Code, ICMI is responsible for ensuring that the operations of signatories are in compliance with the code.

A report by Asad Ismi on the involvement of Canadian mining companies in the pillaging of Ghana's natural resources raised the ire of Mineweb's Tim Wood. Since Mineweb has deleted it from their archive, we have reproduced his outraged editorial, which interestingly does not link to the original (footnoted) article.