Gold Mining and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Wassa West District, Ghana

Abstract

Despite a boom in gold mining in Ghana’s Wassa West district unemployment and poverty have deepened largely due to loss of farm land to surface mining and limited employment opportunities in the ‘revived’ gold mining industry. The large-scale mining companies are implementing some alternative livelihood programmes (ALPs) as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. While the ALPs implemented so far have had some effects in terms of providing some employment and skill training, the prospects for the sustainability of these ALPs would seem to be in doubt without continued commitment and financial resources from the mining companies.