“Creating” Rural Informality: The Case of Artisanal Gold Mining in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper offers a new perspective on the origin of informal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)—the low-tech, labor-intensive extraction and processing of mainly near-surface hard rock and alluvial gold deposits—in rural sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that the conditions that have fueled the sector’s recent rapid growth were brought about by policy changes made by host governments, multilateral organizations, and bilateral agencies. Over the past three decades, these actors have worked in partnership to promote industrial large-scale mineral exploration and excavation activity through increased foreign direct investment, and have simultaneously implemented regulatory frameworks for ASM industries. Previous scholarship has focused on the ASM sector’s sizable environmental footprint, including extensive land degradation and mercury pollution; the sector’s appalling health and safety record; and the many social ills commonly associated with communities where production takes place, such as prostitution and narcotics consumption. This paper will broaden understanding of the sector’s origins through a case study of Ghana’s informal mining economy