Resource-Based Resistance and Galamsey’s Grip on Ghana’s Security Future

Introduction

On 13 August 2025, police from a Special Anti-Galamsey Taskforce¹ seized an excavator in the Ashanti Region town of Bonteso.² Youth from a nearby illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) site in Manso Nkwanta attacked the police officers in a violent clash that left several people injured. While it turned out to be a false alarm—the youth were allegedly sand winning in the area³—the confrontation mirrors prior violent encounters between local galamsey actors and anyone seen as working against it.

Just days earlier, a military helicopter carrying senior military and government officials en route to launch a new anti-galamsey security initiative crashed, killing all aboard. It triggered widespread public speculation, including unsubstantiated claims that galamsey stakeholders, fearing disruption to their operations, may have been involved.

These events underline the volatility of Ghana’s embedded galamsey economy—a reference to the informal, largely unregulated system of artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Ghana that operates outside state laws and licensing frameworks—which is fuelling resource-based resistance. This essay explores growing resistance to the state’s anti-galamsey efforts in Ghana, highlighting violent incidents, underlying socioeconomic drivers, and potential security trajectories, and offering policy guidelines for rethinking responses.

A Double-Edged Sword

Galamsey poses a clear and multifaceted threat to environmental and economic security, governance, and state authority in Ghana.⁴ Its extensive negative environmental, health, and socio-economic impacts exacerbate public grievances.⁵ At the same time, its practice undermines policy implementation, creating recurring flashpoints that strain law enforcement and weaken the rule of law.⁶ Operating as a parallel economy that sustains livelihoods and entrenches local power networks, the threat of galamsey is steadily escalating, with practitioners increasingly challenging state authority through organised resistance.⁷ This fuels a resource-based resistance dynamic,⁸ where galamsey beneficiaries resist reforms that threaten their livelihoods, sometimes through violent confrontations that challenge the state’s monopoly of force.⁹

On the other hand, galamsey represents a lifeline for thousands of unemployed youth, rural households, and migrant labourers who see few alternatives in Ghana’s fragile labour market.¹⁰ The sector provides quick incomes, circulates cash in struggling communities, offers social mobility, and sustains local economies where formal employment is scarce.¹¹ Politicians and local elites often benefit too, extracting rents or using galamsey networks as sources of patronage, which helps entrench galamsey’s place in the local and national political economy. ¹²

Today’s galamsey economy is a negative expansion of a once-customary practice. Before it was criminalised, galamsey had deep historical roots in Ghana’s artisanal mining traditions. In precolonial times, small-scale gold extraction was sanctioned by local authorities and integral to community livelihoods.¹³ Colonial policies monopolised mining rights, eroding chiefs’ authority over artisanal miners and excluding the latter, thereby triggering conflicts over land and livelihood.¹⁴ By criminalising these practices, colonial intrusions recast a once-legitimate livelihood as illegal, foreshadowing today’s tensions between state enforcement and local mining economies.¹⁵

Escalating Resistance

The 2017 killing of Captain Maxwell Mahama in Denkyira-Obuasi by community members foretold how volatile anti-galamsey pushback can be. Attacks on security personnel involved in anti-galamsey operations and journalists have since intensified, with 9 out of 15 documented incidents since 2017 occurring so far in 2025 alone (see Table 1). ¹⁶

Table 1: Timeline of attacks on journalists and anti-galamsey taskforces: May 2017 through August 2025.

Source: Author compilation from various Ghanaian news media.

State approaches to, and the embeddedness of galamsey in community life, help explain the intensity of local resistance.

State responses have included militarised crackdowns and arrests, prosecutions¹⁷, closures of mining villages and equipment seizures¹⁸, digital strategies^,19 and various responsible mining and alternative livelihoods programmes. Overall, these efforts yielded mixed results, largely weakened by compromise, complicity, and cursoriness. Specifically, soldiers reportedly ran ‘protection rackets,’ drones acquired for monitoring and data collection were not well accounted for, and community mining programmes were not sufficiently thought through or backed with adequate practical support.²⁰ Added to this, state inaction over the alleged involvement of Ghanaian ‘big men’ has caused rancour. While the current government’s recent promise to lead a “relentless and ruthless campaign”²¹ signals an upturn in its policy stance, its grounded impacts cannot yet be assessed.

In towns like Bonteso, galamsey is viewed primarily not as a crime, but as a legitimate livelihood strategy—even a community right—in economically precarious communities^.22 In this light, communities may perceive crackdowns not as neutral law enforcement, but as direct threats to household income and communal survival, prompting collective, sometimes violent action.²³ In this sense, resistance is not merely criminal behaviour; it is resource-based and reflects the protection of livelihoods and local economic autonomy, shaped by the foregoing perceptions. ²⁴

Policy Implications for Ghana’s Security Future

The compounded threat posed by galamsey, coupled with its scale—some 1 million reported practitioners²⁵—and modest community support, are risk factors for the deepening of community resistance into a dual authority scenario, wherein local power structures contest state authority in key territories.²⁶ Left unchecked, this would not only undermine governance, but also erode public trust in state institutions, heighten corruption risks, and create fertile ground for other forms of organised crime—already defying multiple anti-galamsey laws,²⁷ power brokers. Elements within the galamsey sector could become more organised and target state officials or assets, whether through sabotage or direct violence, raising the stakes for national security.

Integrated policy approaches must be prioritised, including livelihood support, multi-agency security operations, community involvement and leadership, dialogue and exchange, intelligence monitoring and early warning, and transparency and accountability. However, there can be no meaningful implementation without critical scrutiny of the mixed outcomes of past efforts—many of which reveal a disjuncture between security aspirations and realities.

Conclusion

The Bonteso confrontation illustrates an openly militant stance toward the state’s anti-galamsey interventions and increasing willingness to challenge state authority. Ghana’s security future—defined as the evolving landscape of threat configuration and approaches—depends not only on effective responses, but also on addressing the structural drivers of resistance embedded in the galamsey economy. Without both approaches, violent resistance will continue to the detriment of national stability.

Endnotes

1. BBC News. 2017. “Ghana’s Gold: Galamsey Explained.” Last modified May 30. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-40092641.
2. Donkor, E.A. 2025. “Mob Attacks IGP’s Special Anti-Galamsey Taskforce at Bonteso in Ashanti Region.” MyJoyOnline, August 13. https://www.myjoyonline.com/mob-attacks-igps-special-anti-galamsey-taskforce-at-bonteso-in-ashanti-region/.
3. Lonta, D. 2025. “Calm Returns to Bonteso after Youth-Police Clash over Excavator Seizure.” Citi Newsroom, August 14. https://citinewsroom.com/2025/08/calm-returns-to-bonteso-after-youth-police-clash-over-excavator-seizure/.
4. ISS Africa. 2024. “Ghana’s Road to Rebuilding Public Trust Starts with Security Reforms.” https://issafrica.org/iss-today/ghana-s-road-to-rebuilding-public-trust-starts-with-security-reforms.
5. 2024. “Hundreds March against Ghana’s Damaging Informal Gold Mining Boom.” October 11. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/hundreds-march-against-ghanas-damaging-informal-gold-mining-boom-2024-10-11.
6. Aubyn, Anthony. 2009. “Illegal Small-Scale Mining Activities in Ghana: Actors, Governance and Consequences.” Resources Policy 34 (1–2): 35–41.
7. Wilson, Michael L., Nathaniel K. Armah, Daniel Y. Tetteh, et al. 2015. “Integrated Assessment of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Ghana—Part 3: Social Sciences and Economics.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health12 (7): 8133–8156.
8. Sulemana, Abubakari. 2023. “Illegal Gold Mining and the Political Economy of Resistance in Ghana.” African Affairs 122 (488): 341–365.
9. Nene-Lomotey, Ebenezer. 2024. “Customary Law and Conflict in Ghana’s Galamsey Hotspots.” Health Systems and Innovation Journal6 (1): 55–70.
10. Obi, Cyril. 2010. The Changing Face of Resource Control in Africa: Struggles, Protests, and Resistance.London: Zed Books.
11. Sulemana, Abubakari. 2023. “Illegal Gold Mining and the Political Economy of Resistance in Ghana.” African Affairs 122 (488): 341–365.
12. Hilson, Gavin. 2016. “Artisanal Mining, Poverty, and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Resources Policy 50: 123–131.
13. Wilson, Michael L., Nathaniel K. Armah, Daniel Y. Tetteh, et al. 2015. “Integrated Assessment of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Ghana—Part 3: Social Sciences and Economics.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health12 (7): 8133–8156.
14. Crawford, Gordon, and Gabriel Botchwey. 2017. “Conflict, Collusion and Corruption in Small-Scale Gold Mining: Chinese Miners and the State in Ghana.” Review of African Political Economy 44 (154): 574–589.
15. Ofosu-Mensah, Emmanuel Ababio. 2011. “History of Gold Mining in Ghana: A Study of Artisanal Mining and Its Role in the Society.” Journal of Environmental History 5 (1): 1–20.
16. University of Ghana. n.d. “History of Gold Mining in Ghana” [repository entry]. https://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/items/a140d273-f1fc-4617-9fd2-aea8b4c6a555.
17. Citi Newsroom. 2024. “Galamsey: Over 850 People Facing Prosecution for Illegal Mining—Dame.” September. https://citinewsroom.com/2024/09/galamsey-over-850-people-facing-prosecution-for-illegal-mining-dame/.
18. Ayibani II, Isaac Tetteh. 2025. “Military-Police Task Force Shuts Down Illegal Mining Village in Bono Region.”Modern Ghana, August 6. https://www.modernghana.com/news/1422192/military-police-task-force-shuts-down-illegal-mini.html.
19. Net. 2024. “Satellite Imagery Helping Ghana Fight Illegal Mining.”https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/multimedia/satellite-imagery-helping-ghana-fight-illegal-mining/.
20. Bright Simons. 2024. “Why Ghana’s Galamsey Fight Has Become a Waste of Time.”https://brightsimons.com/2024/09/why-ghanas-galamsey-fight-has-become-a-waste-of-time/.
21. Ghana Business News. 2025. “President Mahama Will Lead ‘Relentless and Ruthless’ War on Illegal Mining—Ablakwa.” August 15.https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2025/08/15/president-mahama-will-lead-relentless-and-ruthless-war-on-illegal-mining-ablakwa/.
22. 2025. “Galamsey Puts Food on Our Tables—Bonteso Women Demonstrate over Arrests.”https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Galamsey-puts-food-on-our-tables-Bonteso-women-demonstrate-over-arrests-1996210.
23. 2024. “Hundreds March against Ghana’s Damaging Informal Gold Mining Boom.” October 11.https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/hundreds-march-against-ghanas-damaging-informal-gold-mining-boom-2024-10-11.
24. Obi, Cyril. 2010.The Changing Face of Resource Control in Africa: Struggles, Protests, and Resistance. London: Zed Books.
25. Imani Africa. 2025. “Why Ghana’s Galamsey Problem Remains Unsolvable in the Current Political Culture.”https://imaniafrica.org/2025/08/why-ghanas-galamsey-problem-remains-unsolvable-in-the-current-political-culture/.
26. Nene-Lomotey, Ebenezer. 2024. “Customary Law and Conflict in Ghana’s Galamsey Hotspots.”Health Systems and Innovation Journal 6 (1): 55–70.
27. 2025. “Mining Laws and Regulations: Ghana.”https://iclg.com/practice-areas/mining-laws-and-regulations/ghana.