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Environment, Vol. 4, Issue 1, Jun  2020, Pages 16-30; DOI: https://doi.org/10.31058/j.envi.2020.41002 https://doi.org/10.31058/j.envi.2020.41002

Mining and Community Conflict: A Study of AngloGold Ashanti and Sanso Community in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

Environment, Vol. 4, Issue 1, Jun  2020, Pages 16-30.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31058/j.envi.2020.41002

John Atakora Dwomoh 1 , Seth Peter Frimpong 1*

1 Department of Social Studies Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana

Received: 20 February 2020; Accepted: 25 September 2020; Published: 17 December 2020

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Abstract

One cannot dispute the fact that AngloGold Ashanti has contributed to the development of Sanso community. Nevertheless, its operations in the area have caused several conflicts. The study was basically to assess the factors that fuel conflicts between AGA and the people of Sanso. The research was purely qualitative with case study as its design. The participants selected for the study were 22. The selection of participants was done using nonprobability sampling techniques such as snowballing, purposive and convenience. Data was collected through the use of open-ended questionnaire, semi-structured interview and focus group discussion. Three police personnel and four AGA staff were given the open-ended questionnaire to answer. Interviews were conducted with the three opinion leaders, two AGA security guards and one official from the Obuasi Municipal Assembly. The researchers also held focus group discussion with the last group of respondents, that is, the Gather-them-and-sell (‘Galamseyers’) artisanal miners who were nine in number. The factors fuelling the conflict which the study revealed include failure of AGA to employ the local folks, reluctance of AGA to discharge its social responsibilities to the mining community and the company’s unpreparedness to foot the electricity bills of community members after it had connected them to the national grid. The recommendations were that the AGA must employ the youth directly or provide them with an alternative livelihood and also the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources should establish a special desk to oversee the relationships between mining communities and companies with the view to dealing with mining-related issues that have the tendency of causing serious clashes.

Keywords

Anglogold Ashanti, Conflict, “Galamseyers”, Mining, Peace, Sanso Community

Copyright

© 2017 by the authors. Licensee International Technology and Science Press Limited. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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