Risks and Crises Management in the Ghana Mining Industry: a case study

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2003-11-28
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Risks and crises have long been recognised as inherent in any mining venture in the world in general but more pronounced in developing countries in which Ghana cannot be ruled out. When risk is not properly managed it develops into crisis and when crisis is not well handled it develops into chaos. In this thesis, the results of a research conducted into the various types of risk, their rankings as causes of crises and management in Ghanaian mining industry and at Bogoso Gold Limited have been presented. The results indicated that all the various types of risk namely business/economic, technological/technical, political/legal and social/cultural have been found to exist in both the Ghanaian mining industry and Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL). The primary causes of crises have been found to be from the various types of risk of which some have resulted in closure of some mines. Potential risk and crisis are looming in the air in some mines while future ones are envisaged. It was also found that Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL) has been able to manage its risk and handled its crisis effectively in the past and presently. Some sub-risk elements such as illegal small-scale mining (galamsey), process technology for transition and sulphide ores, funding community displacement exercise, compensation and gold price fluctuations are predicted to be the main causes of future crises at BGL. If these are not managed effectively, the future of the mine is likely to be jeopardised. These are also true for the mining industry in Ghana as a whole. There are also the perceptions of mining communities, which need to be well managed through management, labour and union attitudes and practices. A collaborative effort should be made by all mining companies to intensify activities on sustainable alternative livelihood projects to assist in generating employment opportunities for the communities in the areas they operate during pre and post mine closure. The government of Ghana should review the Mining & Minerals law periodically to give more protection to large-scale mining companies in the area of illegal small-scale mining and offering competitive incentives.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Mining Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Science in Mining Engineering, 2003
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