Historical overview of traditional and modern gold mining in Ghana

Abstract

The advent of colonialism and the introduction of modern scientific mining in Ghana during the last decade of the nineteenth century enabled European mining companies to gain control over the mining industry. This effectively excluded Africans from participating in the gold mining industry except as labourers and artisans. This article compares and contrasts the pre-colonial methods of mining with modern artisanal or small-scale mining popularly known in Ghana as galamsey and also provide reasons to explain why traditional or pre-colonial mining is still vibrant in the gold-rich Akanland in modern-day Ghana.