School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China.
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Vegetation Restoration, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jul 1;18(13):7044. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18137044.
The mining industry is a significant asset to the development of countries. Ghana, Africa's second-largest gold producer, has benefited from gold mining as the sector generates about 90% of the country's total exports. Just like all industries, mining is associated with benefits and risks to indigenes and the host environment. Small-scale miners are mostly accused in Ghana of being environmentally disruptive, due to their modes of operations. As a result, this paper seeks to assess the environmental impacts of large-scale gold mining with the Nzema Mines in Ellembelle as a case study. The study employs a double-phase mixed-method approach-a case study approach, consisting of site visitation, key informant interviews, questionnaires, and literature reviews, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) analysis method. The NDVI analysis shows that agricultural land reduced by -0.98%, while the bare area increases by 5.21% between the 2008 and 2015 periods. Our results show that forest reserves and bare area were reduced by -4.99% and -29%, respectively, while residential areas increased by 28.17% between 2015 and 2020. Vegetation, land, air, and water quality are highly threatened by large-scale mining in the area. Weak enforcement of mining policies, ineffective stakeholder institution collaborations, and limited community participation in decision-making processes were also noticed during the study. The authors conclude by giving recommendations to help enhance sustainable mining and ensure environmental sustainability in the district and beyond.
采矿业是国家发展的重要资产。非洲第二大黄金生产国加纳受益于金矿开采，因为该行业创造了该国约 90%的总出口额。与所有行业一样，采矿业对土着居民和当地环境既有好处，也有风险。在加纳，小规模矿工主要因其作业方式而被指责对环境造成破坏。因此，本文试图以埃勒姆贝尔勒的 NZEMA 矿为例，评估大型金矿开采对环境的影响。本研究采用了双阶段混合方法——案例研究方法，包括实地考察、关键知情人访谈、问卷调查和文献综述，以及归一化差异植被指数（NDVI）分析方法。NDVI 分析表明，2008 年至 2015 年间，农业用地减少了 0.98%，而裸露面积增加了 5.21%。我们的研究结果表明，森林保护区和裸露地区分别减少了 4.99%和 29%，而住宅区在 2015 年至 2020 年间增加了 28.17%。该地区的大规模采矿对植被、土地、空气和水质造成了严重威胁。在研究过程中，还注意到采矿政策执行不力、利益相关者机构合作无效以及社区参与决策过程有限等问题。作者最后提出了一些建议，以帮助加强可持续采矿，确保该地区乃至更广泛地区的环境可持续性。
