IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v37y2012i4p434-442.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Linkages in Ghana's gold mining industry: Challenging the enclave thesis

Author

Listed:
  • Bloch, Robin
  • Owusu, George

Abstract

By 2009, Ghana was the second-ranked African producer after South Africa, and had become the world's ninth largest producer of gold, at some 3.8% of global production, up from 2.6% five years earlier. Gold production volumes and revenues rose significantly over the decade from 2000. Yet gold mining tends to be perceived negatively in Ghana, and is seen as providing far less than it should in terms of public revenue, employment, skills development and spillovers, and localised economic development. Gold mining is often depicted as having an enclave status, disconnected and isolated from the rest of the economy. In contrast, the research findings here demonstrate that after a period of strong investment and growth, gold mining can no longer be viewed as an enclave activity: it is in fact more deeply linked into the Ghanaian economy than hitherto understood, through a set of as yet under-researched but promising economic linkages, notably backward linkages, which can potentially be strengthened by policy and support measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Bloch, Robin & Owusu, George, 2012. "Linkages in Ghana's gold mining industry: Challenging the enclave thesis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 434-442.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:37:y:2012:i:4:p:434-442
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2012.06.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420712000402
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2012.06.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aryee, Benjamin N. A., 2001. "Ghana's mining sector: its contribution to the national economy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 61-75, June.
    2. Walker, M.I. & Minnitt, R.C.A., 2006. "Understanding the dynamics and competitiveness of the South African minerals inputs cluster," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 12-26, March.
    3. World Bank, 2012. "Increasing Local Procurement By the Mining Industry in West Africa : Road-test version," World Bank Publications - Reports 2724, The World Bank Group.
    4. Heeks, Richard, 1998. "Small Enterprise Development and the 'Dutch Disease' in a Small Economy: The Case of Brunei," General Discussion Papers 30563, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    5. Hilson, Gavin, 2002. "Harvesting mineral riches: 1000 years of gold mining in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 13-26.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pereira, Vijay & Tuffour, James & Patnaik, Swetketu & Temouri, Yama & Malik, Ashish & Singh, Sanjay Kumar, 2021. "The quest for CSR: Mapping responsible and irresponsible practices in an intra-organizational context in Ghana’s gold mining industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 268-281.
    2. Bernard Owusu, 2018. "‘Doomed by the ‘Resource Curse?’ Fish and Oil Conflicts in the Western Gulf of Guinea, Ghana," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 61(1), pages 149-159, December.
    3. Tuokuu, Francis Xavier Dery & Gruber, James S. & Idemudia, Uwafiokun & Kayira, Jean, 2018. "Challenges and opportunities of environmental policy implementation: Empirical evidence from Ghana's gold mining sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 435-445.
    4. Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, 2017. "Competitive clientelism and the political economy of mining in Ghana," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-078-17, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    5. Hirons, Mark, 2014. "Shifting sand, shifting livelihoods? Reflections on a coastal gold rush in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 83-89.
    6. Ngoasong, Michael Zisuh, 2014. "How international oil and gas companies respond to local content policies in petroleum-producing developing countries: A narrative enquiry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 471-479.
    7. Melanie Gräser, 2023. "Industrial versus artisanal mining: The effects on local employment in Liberia," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp341, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    8. Gatsinzi, Angelique & Hilson, Gavin, 2022. "‘Age is just a number’: Articulating the cultural dimension of child labour in Africa's small-scale mining sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Lawer, Eric Tamatey & Lukas, Martin C. & Jørgensen, Stig H., 2017. "The neglected role of local institutions in the ‘resource curse’ debate. Limestone mining in the Krobo region of Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 43-52.
    10. Mohammed Banchirigah, Sadia, 2006. "How have reforms fuelled the expansion of artisanal mining? Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 165-171, September.
    11. Amos James Ibrahim-Shwilima & Hideki Konishi, 2014. "The Impact of Tax Concessions on Extraction of Non-renewable Resources:An Application to Gold Mining in Tanzania," Working Papers 1403, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    12. Owusu, Obed & Wireko, Ishmael & Mensah, Albert Kobina, 2016. "The performance of the mining sector in Ghana: A decomposition analysis of the relative contribution of price and output to revenue growth," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 214-223.
    13. Teschner, Benjamin, 2013. "How you start matters: A comparison of Gold Fields' Tarkwa and Damang Mines and their divergent relationships with local small-scale miners in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 332-340.
    14. Nyame, Frank K. & Andrew Grant, J. & Yakovleva, Natalia, 2009. "Perspectives on migration patterns in Ghana's mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 6-11.
    15. Chuhan-Pole,Punam & Dabalen,Andrew L. & Kotsadam,Andreas & Sanoh,Aly & Tolonen,Anja Karolina & Chuhan-Pole,Punam & Dabalen,Andrew L. & Kotsadam,Andreas & Sanoh,Aly & Tolonen,Anja Karolina, 2015. "The local socioeconomic effects of gold mining : evidence from Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7250, The World Bank.
    16. Meihui Yang & Siqi Zhang & Haochong Huang & Yuanyuan Ma & Sibo Hao & Zili Zhang & Zhiyuan Zheng, 2022. "Insights into a Mineral Resource Chlorite Mica Carbonate Schist by Terahertz Spectroscopy Technology," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-10, August.
    17. Bunte, Jonas B. & Desai, Harsh & Gbala, Kanio & Parks, Bradley & Runfola, Daniel Miller, 2018. "Natural resource sector FDI, government policy, and economic growth: Quasi-experimental evidence from Liberia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 151-162.
    18. Farahani, Hossein & Bayazidi, Shadi, 2018. "Modeling the assessment of socio-economical and environmental impacts of sand mining on local communities: A case study of Villages Tatao River Bank in North-western part of Iran," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 87-95.
    19. Andrews, Nathan, 2016. "Challenges of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in domestic settings: An exploration of mining regulation vis-à-vis CSR in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 9-17.
    20. Amankwah, R.K. & Anim-Sackey, C., 2003. "Strategies for sustainable development of the small-scale gold and diamond mining industry of Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 131-138.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Enclave; Ghana; Gold mining; Linkages; Global value chains; Industrialisation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L72 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Other Nonrenewable Resources
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q33 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Resource Booms (Dutch Disease)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:37:y:2012:i:4:p:434-442. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.