Chinese mining in West Africa: Responding to the environmental and social impacts
Editors’ introduction
In May 2025, the China Global South Initiative (CGSi), a collaboration between the Keough School of Global Affairs and the Atlantic Council Global China Hub, convened a group of twenty-two African environmental experts at the Peduase Valley Resort in Ghana for a three-day workshop on China’s environmental impact in West Africa. This policy workshop, hosted with the support of the Ford Foundation, included representatives from eleven West African countries—Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo—and South Africa. Amid three days of comradery and collaboration, these experts worked together to draft policy memorandums on China’s environmental impact across the region. In the months following the workshop, we worked closely with the authors to curate three briefs—on mining and resource extraction, timber and wildlife, and fisheries and water resources—that identify the challenges and offer actionable policy solutions. We would like to recognize the excellent work of the co-authors who contributed their time and expertise to creating these briefs. In particular we would like to thank the group leaders Abosede Omowumi Babatunde, Ebagnerin Jérôme Tondoh, and Ebimboere Seiyafa and Awa Niang Fall, respectively, for their diligent work.
First and foremost, we would like to thank Caroline Costello, assistant director of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, for her essential contributions to the workshop in Ghana and this collection of issue briefs. Her tireless efforts were truly essential to the success of the project. Ashley Bennett, events strategy program director of the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, provided critical logistical support across a dozen countries. Alexandra Towns at the Keough School and Cate Hansberry, Beverly Larson, and Jeff Fleischer at the Atlantic Council provided expert editorial support. Guidance from Notre Dame’s Pamoja Africa Initiative helped us identify contributors, and the Kellogg Institute helped support their participation. We would also like to thank the excellent staff of the Peduase Valley Resort for their hospitality during the May 2025 workshop. Last, but not least, we would like to thank our partner, the Ford Foundation, whose support made the workshop and these policy briefs possible. Ford is not responsible for the content of these policy briefs.
Bottom lines up front
Executive summary
Driven by growing global demand for minerals, West Africa has become a major hub for mining. Chinese entities—including individuals and private actors and corporations, some of them backed by state financing—are expanding legal and illegal mining for gold, diamonds, iron ore, bauxite, lead, zinc, stones, and critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and copper. These activities, which range from large-scale commercial ventures to small-scale artisanal mining, often cause serious environmental degradation. In many West African countries, Chinese nationals involved in illegal artisanal mining collaborate with local and transnational criminal actors. While some Chinese operations have created jobs and infrastructure in mining communities, their negative impacts on water resources, forests and biodiversity, livelihoods, health, and food security across West Africa have been profound. National or regional policies and enforcement mechanisms have failed to adequately address the social and environmental impacts of mining in the region. This brief proposes policy recommendations responding to the detrimental social and environmental impacts of Chinese mining in West Africa.
Background
There is growing concern about the detrimental environmental effects of Chinese mining operations in West Africa. Chinese companies exploit policy gaps, weak institutions, and the lack of regulatory enforcement
across mineral-rich West African countries. Their involvement in legal and illegal large-scale corporate mining, as well as the small-scale artisanal mining intended for locals, demands policy responses that strengthen governance and enforcement across the region.
The environmental impacts of Chinese mining activities in the region are complex, evolving, and difficult to fully identify due to the blurred lines between formal and informal mining operations. While industrial-scale mining tends to be confined to specific areas and is somewhat better regulated, illegal small-scale mining operations are poorly monitored despite their environmental and social harms. Chinese actors’ deployment of heavy-duty machinery in small-scale mining has significantly damaged ecosystems, especially forests and watersheds. Ultimately, both large- and small-scale mining have become major sources of environmental degradation, enabled by noncompliance with mining regulations, weak regulatory enforcement, and a lack of accountability and prosecutions for legal violations in the mining sector.
The impacts of these activities are not only ecological but also social. The scale of Chinese mining operations with heavy machinery drive land dispossessions and displacement across the region.1Sheridan Prasso, “China’s Quest for Iron,” Bloomberg, June 23, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-china-africa-iron-mining-simandou-mountains/. Chinese operators in illegal mining often convert farmland, forest, and rivers into mining sites—sometimes forcibly or through collusion with government, traditional leaders, and private landowners—eroding long-standing livelihoods rooted in agriculture and fishing.2Gabriel Botchwey and Gordon Crawford, “Resource Politics and the Impact of Chinese Involvement in Small-Scale Mining in Ghana,” Africa 88, 4 (2018), 867–870, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/resource-politics-and-the-impact-ofchinese-involvement-in-smallscale-mining-in-ghana/82FE8F2115A8D553132B868EFE803241. The loss of land for farming bananas, rice, potatoes, and other traditional crops undermines food security, fuels social tension, and stokes conflicts between local communities and Chinese miners.3Prasso, “China’s Quest for Iron.”
Weak regulatory enforcement in the mining sector stems from both systemic and political failures. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are underdeveloped, and existing legal frameworks fail to address the complex challenges posed by the involvement of Chinese nationals throughout the formal and informal mining sectors. Critically, there is a lack of political will to enforce existing laws—due in large part to the complicity of state and local authorities. High-level government officials, security personnel, and local leaders often benefit from illegal mining operations through bribery schemes, unlawful permits and licensing, and even ownership of mining equipment and operations.4Eromo Egbejule, “Polluted Rivers, Uprooted Farmland and Lost Taxes: Ghana Counts Cost of Illegal Gold Mining Boom,” Guardian, November 25, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/25/polluted-rivers-taxes-ghana-illegal-gold-mining-boom. These activities undermine law enforcement, shielding both local and Chinese violators from prosecution. Compounding the problem is the widespread failure of Chinese mining companies to honor their corporate social responsibility (CSR) agreements. Although mining laws in many West African countries require community engagement and CSR implementation, Chinese company compliance is often absent or minimal, leading to public resentment and straining diplomatic relations between China and countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Nigeria.5Smruthi Nadig, “Arrests and Attacks: Tracking China’s Illegal Mining in African Countries,” Mining Technology, December 6, 2023, https://www.mining-technology.com/features/arrests-and-attacks-tracking-chinas-illegal-mining-in-african-countries/?cf-view. These problems, detailed in the following section, underscore the urgent need for national and regional policy responses that address regulatory gaps, strengthen enforcement mechanisms, and promote transparency and accountability in the mining sector.
Evidence
The environmental impacts of Chinese mining activities are broad and far reaching, encompassing land degradation, ecosystem destruction, landslides, pollution deforestation, biodiversity loss, desertification, and exacerbating climate change. Chinese miners’ consistent flouting of environmental standards and safety measures has severely damaged forest reserves, farmlands, and water resources. Chinese mining in West Africa is commonly tied to illegal small-scale artisanal operations carried out in collusion with local and transnational actors, including criminal gangs.6James Boafo, Sebastian Angzoorokuu Paalo, and Senyo Dotsey, “Illicit Chinese Small-Scale Mining in Ghana: Beyond Institutional Weakness?” Sustainability 11, 21 (2019), https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/21/5943; Nicholas Loubere, et al., “Unequal Extractions: Reconceptualizing the Chinese Miner in Ghana,” Labour, Capital and Society 49, 2 (2019), 2–29, https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/portalfiles/portal/82696451/49_2_Loubere_Lu_Crawford_Botchwey.pdf; Martin Arboleda, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism (London: Verso, 2020); Maria-Therese Gustafsson, Almut Schilling-Vacaflor, and Andrea Lenschow, “The Politics of Supply Chain Regulations: Towards Foreign Corporate Accountability in the Area of Human Rights and the Environment?” Regulation & Governance 17 (2023): 853–869, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/rego.12526; Dirk Kohnert, “Prospects and Challenges for the Export of Rare Earths from Sub-Saharan Africa to the EU,” Social Science Research Network, 2024, https://ssrn.com/abstract=4687731. These activities have profound consequences across the region.
Deforestation and soil erosion are commonplace across West African mining sites, and pollution of marine and freshwater bodies occurs at multiple stages of mining exploration. Small-scale gold mining causes extensive land degradation and harms water quality.7Jean de Dieu Izerimana and Lakube Sokowonci Godwin, “Opportunity and Side Effects of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Nigeria,” Modern Economy 15, 3 (2024), 233–250, https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=131810. In Nigeria, Liberia, Mali, and Ghana, Chinese financing has enabled local miners to excavate deeper with bulldozers and use harmful chemicals more extensively.8Samuel T. K. Wilson, et al., “The Mining Sector of Liberia: Current Practices and Environmental Challenges,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research 24 (2017), 18711–18720, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-017-9647-4; and Itohan Otoijamun, et al., “Fostering the Sustainability of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) of Barite in Nasarawa State, Nigeria,” Sustainability 13, 11 (2021), https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/5917. Local mining workers and artisanal miners are exposed to hazardous mercury, cyanide, arsenic, and fluoride, often due to the lack of proper protective gear.9Tawanda Zvarivadza, “Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining as a Challenge and Possible Contributor to Sustainable Development,” Resources Policy 56 (2018), 49–58, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301420717303471; Clement Kwakyewah, “Doing Just Business: An Empirical Analysis of Mining Multinationals, Human Rights and Sustainable Community Development in Western Ghana,” master’s thesis, York University, 2018; F. C. Emetumah, “Modelling Miners’ Consciousness and Experiences for Environmental and Safety Regulatory Compliance during Mining Activities in Ebonyi State, Nigeria,” PhD dissertation, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, 2021; Alyson Warhurst, ed., Environmental Policy in Mining: Corporate Strategy and Planning (London: Routledge, 2024). Wastewater from mining containing these and other toxic heavy metals pollutes soil, groundwater, and rivers in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Mali, where landslides at abandoned Chinese-owned artisanal mines have resulted in fatalities.10Baba Ahmed, “Landslide Kills Several Artisanal Gold Miners in Southern Mali,” Associated Press, January 30, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/mali-gold-miner-accident-4d83bba17a9076f703470f5bc0db7443. In Nigeria, lead poisoning in mining sites in Zamfara State in 2010 resulted in about four hundred children falling ill or dying.11Dauda Garuba, et al., “Impact of Mining on Women, Youth and Others in Selected Communities in Nigeria,” Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, 2020, https://neiti.gov.ng/cms/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/NEITI-OPS7-Impact-of-Mining-on-Women-Youth-Others-in-Nigeria-051020.pdf. Wastewater discharge onto farmlands from mining reduces crop yields and introduces toxins into the food chain, affecting human and animal health.12Ali Nouri, et al., “Introducing Sustainable Development and Reviewing Environmental Sustainability in the Mining Industry,” Rudarsko-geološko-naftni zbornik 37, 4 (2022), 91–108, https://ojs.srce.hr/index.php/rgn/article/view/21711. Many mining communities have reported disproportionate cases of cancer, respiratory infections, waterborne diseases, reproductive disorders, skin disorders, asthma, spontaneous abortions, and birth defects.13Kouame Joseph Arthur Kouamé, Fuxing Jiang, and Zhu Sitao, “Artisanal Gold Mining’s Impact on Local Livelihoods and the Mining Industry in Ivory Coast,” World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development 14, 1 (2017), 18–28, https://www.emerald.com/wjstsd/article-abstract/14/1/18/383310/Artisanal-gold-mining-s-impact-on-local?redirectedFrom=fulltext; Nwankpa and Alexander Chinyere, “Gamma Radiation Associated with Gold Mining in Rrinmo, Osun State, Nigeria,” Environmental Research Journal 13, 3 (2019), 79–82, https://makhillpublications.co/files/published-files/mak-erj/2019/3-79-82.pdf; Garuba, et al., “Impact of Mining on Women, Youth and Others in Selected Communities in Nigeria”; Nuraddeen Nasiru Garba, et al., “Investigation of Potential Environmental Radiation Risks Associated with Artisanal Gold Mining in Zamfara State, Nigeria,” Environmental Earth Sciences 80, 3 (2021), 1–9, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12665-021-09367-2; Andrea Leuenberger, et al., “Health Impacts of Industrial Mining on Surrounding Communities: Local Perspectives from Three Sub-Saharan African Countries,” PLOS One (2021), 1–23, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0252433; Gianna S. Himmelsbach, et al., “Exploring the Impact of Mining on Community Health and Health Service Delivery: Perceptions of Key Informants Involved in Gold Mining Communities in Burkina Faso,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20, 24 (2023), 1–23, https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/24/7167; Kodwo Amoa-Abban, “Ghana’s Gold Gamble: How Illegal Mining Threatens Our Future and Global Relations,” Joy Online, September 6, 2024, https://www.myjoyonline.com/ghanas-gold-gamble-how-illegal-mining-threatens-ourfuture-and-global-relations/; Kenneth Awotwe Darko, “Impose Ban on Small-Scale Mining in Ghana—Health Workers to Akufo-Addo,” Joy Online, September 6, 2024, https://www.myjoyonline.com/impose-ban-on-small-scale-mining-in-ghana-health-workersto-akufo-addo/#google_vignette.
In coastal communities where mining is widespread, dredging boats discharge oil, fuel, and chemicals, obstruct riverbeds, cause erosion, and deform watercourses. Chinese mining operations have also released ballast water containing invasive species and toxic waste into marine ecosystems.14Edmund C. Merem, et al., “Assessing the Ecological Effects of Mining in West Africa: The Case of Nigeria,” International Journal of Mining Engineering and Mineral Processing 6, 1 (2017), 1–19, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314121473_Assessing_the_Ecological_Effects_of_Mining_in_West_Africa_The_Case_of_Nigeria; Wilson, et al., “The Mining Sector of Liberia,” 18711–18720. Harmful runoff in mining sites poisons fish and reduces the size and quality of local stocks. Meanwhile, loss of farmland worsens poverty and undermines food security. In Ghana, the majority of small-scale “galamsey” gold mining sites are run by Chinese nationals, with more than fifty thousand Chinese nationals entering the country between 2008 and 2013 to engage in illegal gold mining. According to the Mankurom Cocoa Cooperative Farmers Association, small-scale gold mining has destroyed more than 100,000 acres of cocoa farmland.15Ebenezer Aikins, “Ghana Must Stop Galamsey before It Sinks the Country,” Institute for Security Studies, September 24, 2024, https://issafrica.org/iss-today/ghana-must-stop-galamsey-before-it-sinks-the-country; Theodore Abiwu and Justice Baidoo, “The Winners and Losers of Ghana’s Gold Rush,” Institute for War & Peace Reporting, December 10, 2024, https://iwpr.net/global-voices/winners-and-losers-ghanas-gold-rush; “More than 100,000 Acres of Cocoa Farms Destroyed by Galamsey—Farmers Association,” GhanaWeb, September 6, 2024, https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/More-than-100-000-acres-of-cocoafarms-destroyed-by-galamsey-Farmers-Association-1949476. In Nigeria, mining-related disruptions have intensified farmer-herder conflicts due to declining access to water and grazing land.16Leif Brottem and Andrew McDonnell, “Pastoralism and Conflict in Sudano-Sahel: A Review of the Literature,” Search for Common Ground, July 2020, https://documents.sfcg.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Pastoralism_and_Conflict_in_the_Sudano-Sahel_Jul_2020.pdf; Abosede Omowumi Babatunde and Fatma Osman Ibnouf, “The Dynamics of Herder-Farmer Conflicts in Plateau State, Nigeria, and Central Darfur State, Sudan,” African Studies Review 67, 2 (2024), 321–350, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/dynamics-of-herderfarmer-conflicts-in-plateau-state-nigeria-and-central-darfur-state-sudan/7E7D1919E669ED01BD164B7D13F2639C.
Chinese artisanal and illegal mining has also accelerated deforestation.17Kouame, K.J.A., Jiang, F. and Sitao, Z. (2017), “Artisanal gold mining’s impact on local livelihoods and the mining industry in Ivory Coast”, World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 18-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-09-2016-0056. In Ghana, bauxite mining in the Atewa Forest has devastated 5,000 hectares.18Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, “The State of Ghana’s Forest Reserve and Water Bodies,” Parliament of Ghana, February 19, 2025, https://www.parliament.gh/floor?dis=50. In Nigeria, mining in forest zones has resulted in significant habitat loss. From 1975 to 2005, Bukuru, Plateau state, lost 63 percent of its forested area due to mining.19Merem, et al., “Assessing the Ecological Effects of Mining in West Africa.” These forests filter pollution and ensure a steady supply of water to important inland rivers such as the Falémé River (Senegal and Mali), Bagoé River (Côte d’Ivoire and Mali), Tano-Bia Basin (Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire), and the Volta Basin (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, and Togo).20Samuel Nunoo, et al., “Impact of Artisanal Small-scale (Gold and Diamond) Mining Activities on the Offin, Oda and Pra Rivers in Southern Ghana, West Africa: A Scientific Response to Public Concern,” Heliyon 8, 12 (2022), 1–12, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844022036118; Divine Dodzi Gbedzi, et al., “Impact of Mining on Land Use Land Cover Change and Water Quality in the Asutifi North District of Ghana, West Africa,” Environmental Challenges 6 (2022), 1–15, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667010022000014; Oreoluwa Ola and Emmanuel Benjamin, “Preserving Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in West African Forest, Watersheds, and Wetlands: A Review of Incentives,” Forests 10, 6 (2019), 479, https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/10/6/479.
Chinese involvement in mining across West Africa is linked to organized crime and the proliferation of weapons.21Richard Asante, “China’s Security and Economic Engagement in West Africa: Constructive or Destructive?” China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies 3, 4 (2017), 575–596, https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2377740017500257. Transnational criminal networks linked to Chinese mining have destabilized mining regions and eroded trust in both local and national governance.22H. A. Ahmed, “Overview of Nigeria’s Solid Mineral Potentials, Challenges and Prospects,” FUTY Journal of the Environment 16, 1 (2022), 76–91, https://www.ajol.info/index.php/fje/article/view/256334; K. N. Yakubu, “Governance and Security in Africa: Beyond the State: Non-State Actors and Security in Nigeria: A Case of Yen Kato Da Gora in Kaduna Urban Area,” PhD dissertation, SOAS University of London, 2024; Amoa-Abban, “Ghana’s Gold Gamble”; Manuel Bustillo Revuelta, Mineral Resources: From Exploration to Sustainability Assessment (New York: Springer, 2017), 653; Anura Widana, “The Impacts of Mining Industry: A Review of Socio-Economics and Political Impacts,” Journal of Insurance and Financial Management 4, 4 (2021), 1–30, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334794541_The_Impacts_of_Mining_Industry_Socio-Economics_and_Political_Impacts. Illegal mining has also become a funding source for armed groups and terrorists, such as Boko Haram and bandits in the Nigerian state of Zamfara.23Cyril Olumuyiwa Amosu and T. A. Adeosun, “Curtailing Illegal Mining Operation in Nigeria,” International Journal of Physical and Human Geography 9, 1 (2021), 13–24, https://eajournals.org/ijphg/vol-9-issue-1-2021/curtailing-illegal-mining-operation-in-nigeria/; Abosede Omowumi Babatunde, et al., Managing Violent Religious Extremism in Fragile States: Building Institutional Capacity in Nigeria and Kenya (London: Routledge, 2022), https://www.routledge.com/Managing-Violent-Religious-Extremism-in-Fragile-States-Building-Institutional-Capacity-in-Nigeria-and-Kenya/Babatunde-Adedimeji-Raji-Maweu-MwangiGithigaro/p/book/9781032111124; Alex Olanrewaju Adekanmbi and Drew Wolf, “Solid Mineral Resources Extraction and Processing Using Innovative Technology in Nigeria,” ATBU Journal of Science, Technology and Education 12, 1 (2024), 1–16, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378108458_Solid_Mineral_Resources_Extraction_and_Processing_Using_Innovative_Technology_in_Nigeria. Illicit gold mining in the Central Sahel countries—Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—has been linked to transnational organized crime and instability. The illicit trade in Sierra Leonean diamonds and Malian gold has been tied to criminal syndicates and terrorism.24John Sunday Ojo and Oluwole Ojewale, “Gold Mining and Instability in the Central Sahel” in Governing Natural Resources for Sustainable Peace in Africa (London: Routledge, 2023), 38–59; Åse Gilje Østensen and Mats Stridsman, “Shadow Value Chains: Tracing the Link between Corruption, Illicit Activity and Lootable Natural Resources from West Africa,” U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre’s U4 Issue 7 (2017), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326893824_Shadow_Value_Chains_Tracing_the_link_between_corruption_illicit_activity_and_lootable_natural_resources_from_West_Africa.
While Chinese involvement in mining has supported some job creation, infrastructure development, and technology transfer in mining communities, these benefits are typically accompanied by poor working conditions, low wages, environmental hazards, and labor-rights violations.25Benno Pokorny, et al., “All the Gold for Nothing? Impacts of Mining on Rural Livelihoods in Northern Burkina Faso,” World Development 119 (2019), 23–39, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.03.003. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X19300476; Bonnie Campbell, “Revisiting the Interconnections between Research Strategies and Policy Proposals: Reflections from the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector in Africa” in Property Rights and Governance in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (London: Routledge, 2020), 15–33, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23802014.2016.1226145; Abdul-Wadood Moomen, et al., “Inadequate Adaptation of Geospatial Information for Sustainable Mining towards Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals,” Journal of Cleaner Production 238 (2019), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652619328240; E. Akyeampong and L. Xu, “Chinese Technology and the Transformation of the Rural Economy in Ghana: Evidence from Galamsey in the Ashanti and Savannah Regions,” African Affairs 122, no. 488 (2023): 329–351, https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/122/488/329/7264167; Amir Lebdioui and William Davis, “Multidimensional Indicator of Extractives Based Development: Country Profiles,” MINDEX, November 2023, https://resourcegovernance.org/sites/default/files/2023-11/Multidimensional_Indicator_of_Extractives-Based_Development_Country_Profiles.pdf; J. F. Akinbami, S. O. Oyedepo, and A. O. Adedeji, “Mining and Its Socio-Economic Impacts on Rural Communities in Nigeria,” Resources Policy 69, 4 (2020), 36–48; T. Dougherty, “Environmental Impacts of Mining: A Review of the Nigerian Experience,” Journal of Environmental Management 30, 2 (2020), 112–126; Oksana Marinina, Natalia Kirsanova, and Marina Nevskaya, “Circular Economy Models in Industry: Developing a Conceptual Framework,” Energies 15, 24 (2022), https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/24/9376. Even when communities negotiate infrastructure projects, the benefits rarely offset the environmental and social damage.26Deanna Kemp and John R. Owen, “Community Relations and Mining: Core to Business but Not ‘Core Business,’” Resources Policy 38 (2013), 523–553, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142071300069X; Campbell, “Revisiting the Interconnections between Research Strategies and Policy Proposals”; Moomen, et al., “Inadequate Adaptation of Geospatial Information for Sustainable Mining towards Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.” Numerous cases of inadequate compensation, unpaid royalties, and poor infrastructure have fueled community tensions and intracommunity disputes.27Le Billon, “Crisis Conservation and Green Extraction”; Andreas Johansson, “Managing Intractable Natural Resource Conflicts: Exploring Possibilities and Conditions for Reframing in a Mine Establishment Conflict in Northern Sweden,” Environmental Management 72 (2023), 818–837, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00267-023-01838-5. In Niger, for example, top Chinese oil executives were expelled for failing to adhere to the mining code requiring them to use local subcontractors and laborers
for extraction.
Governance weaknesses exacerbate these challenges. Environmental and natural resource agencies across West Africa are underfunded, lack the independence needed to enforce regulations, and are plagued with corruption.28Ahmed, “Overview of Nigeria’s Solid Mineral Potentials, Challenges and Prospects”; Edmund C. Merem, et al., “The Assessment of China’s Scramble for Natural Resources Extraction in Africa,” World Environment 11, 1 (2021), 9–25, https://scispace.com/papers/the-assessment-of-china-s-scramble-for-natural-resources-29tzuultf0. Overlapping mandates and poor interagency communication hinder enforcement, while lax licensing systems allow illegal Chinese operations to flourish. Weak coordination between federal, provincial, and local authorities further enables illegal mining to thrive.29Adekanmbi and Wolf, “Solid Mineral Resources Extraction and Processing Using Innovative Technology in Nigeria.” Many countries also lack clear procedures governing the entire process from mineral exploration to mine decommissioning.30Angela Oyilieze Akanwa and Ngozi N. Joe-Ikechebelu, “Sustainable Natural Resources Exploitation: Clay/Sand Mining on Diminishing Greener Security and Increased Climate Risks in Nigeria” in Natural Resources Conservation and Advances for Sustainability (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2022), 545–562, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128229767000181. In Nigeria, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, and Liberia, small-scale mining licenses are often misused for large-scale operations and many Chinese firms operate without proper registration or licenses.31Nandom Abu, Suleiman Abba Tahir, and H. D. Ibrahim, “Minerals and Mining Policies in Nigeria: Implications on Sustainable Growth and National Development,” International Journal of Research in Engineering and Science 8, 9 (2020), 60–72, https://www.ijres.org/papers/Volume-8/Issue-9/J08096072.pdf; “Nigerian Mining–Progress, but Still a Long Way to Go,” PricewaterhouseCoopers, July 2023, https://www.pwc.com/ng/en/publications/nigerian-mining-progress-but-still-a-long-way-to-go.html; “Mining in Nigeria: Opportunities, Challenges, and Prospects,” Mining Review Africa, September 20, 2023, https://www.miningreview.com/gold/mining-in-nigeria-challenges-opportunities-and-prospects/. In Ghana, where artisanal mining is restricted to nationals, Chinese actors are heavily involved through local intermediaries.32Emmanuel Debrah and Raphael Asante, “Sino-Ghana Bilateral Relations and Chinese Migrants’ Illegal Gold Mining in Ghana,” Asian Journal of Political Science 27, 3 (2019), 286–307, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02185377.2019.1669473. Governments frequently issue licenses without consulting or compensating local landowners.33Akinbami, et al., “Mining and Its Socio-Economic Impacts on Rural Communities in Nigeria.” In Nigeria and Ghana, vague and controversial land laws allow governments to appropriate land regardless of prior ownership, often keeping marginalized communities from receiving the economic benefits of mineral extraction.34Adekanmbi and Wolf, “Solid Mineral Resources Extraction and Processing Using Innovative Technology in Nigeria”; and Kohnert, “Prospects and Challenges for the Export of Rare Earths from Sub-Saharan Africa to the EU.”
Even in countries that have environmental impact assessment (EIA) laws—such as Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire—implementation is politicized and inconsistent and rarely results in severe penalties for violators. Officials often exploit the EIA process for personal gain, circumventing pollution-mitigation and land-restoration requirements. In Ghana, EIAs are mandatory for small-scale mining, but enforcement is weak.35Boafo, et al., “Illicit Chinese Small-Scale Mining in Ghana”; Albert K. Mensah, et al., “Environmental Impacts of Mining: A Study of Mining Communities in Ghana,” Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences 3, 3 (2015), 81–94, https://pubs.sciepub.com/aees/3/3/3/. In Nigeria, the process remains opaque, and officials have misled local communities, particularly in areas with high illiteracy.36Olayinka, et al., “Mining and Environmental Impact Assessment in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
This evidence underscores the urgent need for national and regional policies to close regulatory gaps and strengthen enforcement to curb the socioenvironmental consequences of Chinese mining in West Africa.
Policy recommendations
Improve oversight and compliance
Raising public awareness
Empower communities
International engagement
About the authors
Richard Asante is an Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, Development and African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. His research focuses on the intersection between politics and development, with particular focus on Africa-China relations, Ghana-U.S security cooperation, natural resource governance, environmental security and communal conflicts, and impact of peacekeeping on domestic and regional security. Asante has been a visiting professor at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Pomona College, Claremont, California, USA, where he taught comparative politics of Africa and peace and security in Africa (2016/2017). He also served as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, at the Program of African Studies (PAS), Northwestern University; he taught comparative politics and development in Africa (2012/2013). Asante holds a B.A and M. Phil degrees in Political Science from the University of Ghana, and a PhD degree in Political Science under the Harvard University (Boston, USA)-University of Ghana split-PhD program. He was a special student in the Department of Government at Harvard University, Boston, USA (2008/2009). He is the Regional Manager, West Africa for the Varieties of Democracy.
Joseph Asunka is the CEO at Afrobarometer, a pan- African survey research organization that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy, and social issues across Africa. Joseph’s research interests are broadly in governance and democracy in Africa, with specific interests in elections and electoral processes and public service delivery. Joseph holds first and second degrees in Statistics & Computer Science and Economics from the University of Ghana and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Abosede Omowumi Babatunde is a professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Prof. Babatunde has been awarded several distinguished academic fellowships including the 2024 Afox Visiting Research Fellow (Africa-Oxford Initiative) in the Merton College and African Studies Centre, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Her work has been supported by research grants from CODESRIA; APN/SSRC, APSA Centennial Foundation and IPRA Foundation. Her research interests include conflict resolution, natural resources governance, human rights and security, peacebuilding and gender studies. She recently co-authored the book “Managing Violent Religious Extremism in Fragile States: Building Institutional Capacity in Nigeria and Kenya,” Routledge African Governance Series” (recommended by CHOICE and selected for the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), Ethiopia Tana High Level Forum Book Launch, 2023).
Joshua Eisenman is a professor of politics at the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on the political economy of China’s development and foreign relations with the United States and the Global South — particularly Africa. His latest book, China’s Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement (Columbia University Press, 2023), explains the tactics and methods that China uses to build relations with African countries and contextualizes and interprets them within Beijing’s larger geostrategy.
Francis Egu Lansana is a forward-thinking development enthusiast with technical knowledge in natural resource governance, gender inclusion and leadership. He is an experienced public and private sector manager. He has a strong foundation in current methodologies paired with an understanding of trends and a desire to innovate. His research examines open governance and citizens’ participation in mining concession decision-making. He holds a master’s degree in development studies from Erasmus University, The Netherlands.
Sanusha Naidu is a senior research associate with the Institute for Global Dialogue. Her areas of analysis include democracy, development and the political economy of Africa’s international relations and South Africa’s Foreign Policy. She has also focused her interests on South-South Cooperation and the footprint of emerging powers in Africa. She previously worked at the Centre for Conflict Resolution based in Cape Town and managed the South African Foreign Policy Initiative (SAFPI) at the Open Society Foundation for South Africa.
Ogbonnaya Igwe is the chairperson of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Research Group, and the Lead of Engineering Geology/Geotechnical Engineering Unit, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is an environmental expat specializing in sustainable environmental protection and disaster prevention/management. He is the coordinator of the ICL-UNESCO Centre of Excellence and Tuning Africa Project in Applied Geology University of Nigeria, Nsukka
and consults for the oil and gas industry in environmental and social impact assessment and environmental evaluation studies projects.
Youmanli Ouoba is a professor of economics at the University of Thomas SANKARA. His research interests are in natural resources management, agricultural development and environmental economics. He is the current director of the Center for Economic and Social Studies, Documentation and Research (CEDRES) of Thomas SANKARA University, Burkina Faso.
Boukary Sangaré is a Malian anthropologist and independent consultant and has conducted several studies for international NGOs working in Mali and the Sahel. He joined the Institute for Security Studies in 2019 as a research consultant. Before joining ISS, he was a program officer for the Peaceful Coexistence, Peacebuilding and Reconciliation Program at the Danish Embassy in Bamako. Boukary has worked in the Sahel for the past decade on conflict, violent extremism, radicalization, governance, social mobility and social media.
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