Enforce Safety Standards, Prevent Child Labor in Artisanal Gold Mining
(Johannesburg, June 13, 2013) – A recent mining accident that killed 16 people at an unlicensed artisanal gold mine in Ghana underscores the need for tougher measures to end child labor and protect the safety of adult artisanal miners, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch visited the site of the mine collapse between May 31 and June 2, 2013.
On April 15, at around 6:45 a.m., a mud wall collapsed in a large open pit at a gold mine where over 20 people were working near Kyekyewere, Upper Denkyira East District, Central Ghana. A few of the miners were pulled from the mud with injuries, but 16 died. Among the victims was a 17-year-old boy named Abroso Kwabena Donkor, an orphan who had dropped out of school at 15 to work in the mines.
“Mining is one of the most hazardous types of work in the world,” said Juliane Kippenberg, senior children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Ghana’s government needs to get children out of those mines and make it a priority to regulate the country’s artisanal gold mining.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 members of the community near the site of the mine collapse, including 8 children who worked in or near the mine and 5 witnesses to the collapse, as well as government authorities in Upper Denkyira East district and the capital, Accra.
Children from nearby villages worked regularly at the accident site. Children as young as 12 carried and processed the ore and sold the raw gold they mined directly to local traders.
A third of Ghana’s children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working. A 2006 International Labor Organization (ILO) study found that about 10,000 children were working in the country’s artisanal gold mines. Children who work in artisanal gold mining risk ill-health or accidents from deep falls into pits, collapsing pits, flying rocks or shard, dangerous tools and machinery, continued exposure to dust, transport of heavy loads, and the use of toxic mercury.
Twelve-year-old “Ibrahim” described to Human Rights Watch how he carried heavy ore and processed it with mercury. Asked whether he liked this work, Ibrahim said, “I don’t like mining anymore because of the way people are dying.”
Under Ghanaian law, work in mining is explicitly prohibited for anyone under 18. Ghana has ratified international standards on child labor, including ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. Although the government has developed an action plan and put in place a national steering committee to address child labor, such efforts rarely reach the artisanal mines. The few programs that address child labor in mining are run by international agencies and nongovernmental organizations and are limited in scope.
“The government should inspect licensed and unlicensed mines for child labor,” Kippenberg said. “Children risk their lives in these mines.”
In addition to accidents, children risk ill-health and permanent disability from exposure to toxic mercury used for gold processing. Mercury attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children. Mercury is added to the ore to create a gold-mercury amalgam, and then burned off, releasing toxic vapor and leaving the raw gold behind.
Children in the Kyekyewere area told Human Rights Watch that they handled mercury on a regular basis. An adult miner commented on the work of children at the accident site:
The children wash the mineral. They are all boys. They do the processing with the mercury. They know the work better than the older ones.
The trade and use of mercury for mining is legal in Ghana, despite international efforts to reduce mercury use. In January 2013, governments around the world agreed on a new international treaty seeking to reduce the harmful effect of mercury globally, the Minamata Convention. Human Rights Watch urged the government of Ghana to sign and ratify the Minamata Convention, and to take urgent steps to reduce, and where feasible eliminate, mercury use in mining.
International human rights law compels Ghana’s government to protect its citizens from abuses, including those connected with mining activity. Around the world, evidence has shown that without effective government regulation, mining operators and companies will not consistently behave responsibly.
“This recent accident shows how a government that fails to properly regulate mining activity can end up creating a fertile ground for death, injury, and abuse,” Kippenberg said. “The Ghanaian government needs to sanction those who employ children, run unsafe mining operations, or fail to rehabilitate sites.”