{"id":6447,"date":"2024-11-03T09:52:33","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T09:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6447"},"modified":"2024-11-07T09:54:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T09:54:34","slug":"hundreds-march-against-unlicensed-gold-mining-boom-in-ghana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6447","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds March Against Unlicensed Gold Mining Boom in Ghana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0<span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/author\/oswald-t-brown\/\">Oswald T. Brown<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of people marched through Ghana\u2019s capital Accra on Friday in a peaceful protest against unlicensed gold mining, calling on authorities to act against the dangerous and environmentally damaging practice,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/hundreds-march-against-ghanas-damaging-informal-gold-mining-boom-2024-10-11\/\">according to Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Illegal small-scale gold mining, known as \u201cgalamsey\u201d in Ghana, has picked up this year following an almost 30% rise in global gold prices.<\/p>\n<p>Small-scale mines produced 1.2 million ounces of gold in the first seven months of this year, more than in the whole of 2023, according to data from Ghana\u2019s mining sector regulator.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-1 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-caf9af3267-0\">But the boom in a practice that harms miners\u2019 health, pollutes waterways, destroys forests and cocoa farms, and fuels crime has spurred calls and protests to clamp down. It has also become a hot-button electoral issue as Ghana heads to the polls on Dec. 7 for a general election.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Hundreds took part in an \u201cenvironmental prayer walk\u201d against galamsey on Friday that involved handing a petition for a ban on informal mining to the president\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>The march followed plans by labor unions for a nationwide strike against galamsey that were partially called off after the government made promising provisions, according to local media reports citing the organizers.<\/p>\n<p>The government is under pressure to appeal to voters who will elect the next president of the West African nation, known for producing gold and cocoa.<\/p>\n<p>Outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo has grappled with the country\u2019s worst economic crisis in a generation and a massive debt overhaul that has heavily impacted people\u2019s livelihoods.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-2 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-2bd992b9b0-0\">About 40% of Ghana\u2019s total gold output comes from small-scale mines, as opposed to concessions operated by multinational firms. Some 70%-80% of the small mines are unlicensed.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/ghana-protests-galamsey-mining\/\">Published without changes from Washington Informer Newspaper<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0Oswald T. Brown Hundreds of people marched through Ghana\u2019s capital Accra on Friday in a peaceful protest against<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-express"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6449,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447\/revisions\/6449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}