IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i11p2034-d118878.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Emergy Perspectives on the Environmental Performance and Sustainability of Small-Scale Gold Production Systems in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Ernest Frimpong Asamoah

    (State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Lixiao Zhang

    (State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Sai Liang

    (State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Mingyue Pang

    (State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Shoujuan Tang

    (State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

Abstract

Small-scale gold mining is an important component of the Ghanaian economy but it has also caused enormous damage to local ecosystems. In this paper, an emergy analysis was conducted in Ghana to assess the environmental performance and the relative sustainability of two artisanal and small-scale gold production systems: alluvial “dig and wash” and underground “ghetto” mines. Results show that both production systems have high environmental impacts, as indicated by an environmental loading ratio (ELR) of 4.31 and environmental sustainability index (ESI) of 0.33 for the alluvial system and 2.53 and 0.52 for the underground system, respectively. Concerning the international trade balance, the emergy exchange ratios of the two systems are both lower than one, at, 0.23 and 0.33 for the alluvial and underground systems, respectively, indicating a significant amount of resource loss to foreign regions. This study could assist in the regulation of the small-scale mining sector bearing in mind the unsustainable nature of their activities. In addition, supporting miners to consider land rehabilitation ethics is urgently needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernest Frimpong Asamoah & Lixiao Zhang & Sai Liang & Mingyue Pang & Shoujuan Tang, 2017. "Emergy Perspectives on the Environmental Performance and Sustainability of Small-Scale Gold Production Systems in Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:11:p:2034-:d:118878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/11/2034/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/11/2034/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pang, Mingyue & Zhang, Lixiao & Ulgiati, Sergio & Wang, Changbo, 2015. "Ecological impacts of small hydropower in China: Insights from an emergy analysis of a case plant," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 112-122.
    2. Hilson, Gavin, 2009. "Small-scale mining, poverty and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: An overview," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 1-5.
    3. Agostinho, Feni & Diniz, Guaraci & Siche, Raúl & Ortega, Enrique, 2008. "The use of emergy assessment and the Geographical Information System in the diagnosis of small family farms in Brazil," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 210(1), pages 37-57.
    4. Wesley W. Ingwersen, 2011. "Emergy as a Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicator," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 15(4), pages 550-567, August.
    5. Bastianoni, S. & Campbell, D.E. & Ridolfi, R. & Pulselli, F.M., 2009. "The solar transformity of petroleum fuels," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(1), pages 40-50.
    6. 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)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tian, Xu & Sarkis, Joseph, 2020. "Expanding green supply chain performance measurement through emergy accounting and analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    2. Isabel B. Franco & Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira & Saleem H. Ali, 2018. "Peace with Hunger: Colombia’s Checkered Experience with Post-Conflict Sustainable Community Development in Emerald-Mining Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    3. Galychyn, Oleksandr, 2022. "Towards sustainable cities: A multi-criteria assessment framework for studying urban metabolism," MPRA Paper 121584, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 May 2022.
    4. Chanhoon Jung & Chanwoo Kim & Solhee Kim & Kyo Suh, 2018. "Analysis of Environmental Carrying Capacity with Emergy Perspective of Jeju Island," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-12, May.
    5. Viera-Romero, A.M. & Diemont, S.A.W. & Selfa, T.L. & Luzadis, V.A., 2024. "The sustainability of shrimp aquaculture: An emergy-based case study in the Gulf of Guayaquil thirty years later," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    6. Edrisi, Sheikh Adil & Sahiba, Sheikh Arshiya & Chen, Bin & Abhilash, P.C., 2022. "Emergy-based sustainability analysis of bioenergy production from marginal and degraded lands of India," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 466(C).

    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. 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).
    2. 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.
    3. Zhong, Weiqiong & An, Haizhong & Shen, Lei & Fang, Wei & Gao, Xiangyun & Dong, Di, 2017. "The roles of countries in the international fossil fuel trade: An emergy and network analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 365-376.
    4. Asgharipour, Mohammad Reza & Amiri, Zahra & Campbell, Daniel E., 2020. "Evaluation of the sustainability of four greenhouse vegetable production ecosystems based on an analysis of emergy and social characteristics”," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 424(C).
    5. Pulselli, Federico M. & Patrizi, Nicoletta & Focardi, Silvia, 2011. "Calculation of the unit emergy value of water in an Italian watershed," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(16), pages 2929-2938.
    6. Hirons, Mark, 2014. "Shifting sand, shifting livelihoods? Reflections on a coastal gold rush in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 83-89.
    7. Takam Tiamgne, Xavier & Kalaba, Felix K. & Nyirenda, Vincent R., 2022. "Mining and socio-ecological systems: A systematic review of Sub-Saharan Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Rugani, B. & Pulselli, R.M. & Niccolucci, V. & Bastianoni, S., 2011. "Environmental performance of a XIV Century water management system: An emergy evaluation of cultural heritage," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 117-125.
    9. Giannetti, B.F. & Ogura, Y. & Bonilla, S.H. & Almeida, C.M.V.B., 2011. "Accounting emergy flows to determine the best production model of a coffee plantation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7399-7407.
    10. Shah, Syed Mahboob & Liu, Gengyuan & Yang, Qing & Casazza, Marco & Agostinho, Feni & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2021. "Sustainability assessment of agriculture production systems in Pakistan: A provincial-scale energy-based evaluation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 455(C).
    11. Ge, Zewen & Geng, Yong & Wei, Wendong & Jiang, Mingkun & Chen, Bin & Li, Jiashuo, 2023. "Embodied carbon emissions induced by the construction of hydropower infrastructure in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    12. Stephen G. Wiedemann & Quan V. Nguyen & Simon J. Clarke, 2022. "Using LCA and Circularity Indicators to Measure the Sustainability of Textiles—Examples of Renewable and Non-Renewable Fibres," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-14, December.
    13. Zhao, Yuanhao & Wang, Changbo & Zhang, Lixiao & Chang, Yuan & Hao, Yan, 2021. "Converting waste cooking oil to biodiesel in China: Environmental impacts and economic feasibility," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    14. Poignant, Adrian, 2023. "Small-scale mining and agriculture: Evidence from northwestern Tanzania," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Pang, Mingyue & Zhang, Lixiao & Bahaj, AbuBakr S. & Xu, Kaipeng & Hao, Yan & Wang, Changbo, 2018. "Small hydropower development in Tibet: Insight from a survey in Nagqu Prefecture," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 3032-3040.
    16. Kotsadam, Andreas & Tolonen, Anja, 2016. "African Mining, Gender, and Local Employment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 325-339.
    17. Kongyang Nhiakao & Helmut Yabar & Takeshi Mizunoya, 2022. "Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Nam Che 1 Hydropower Plant, Thathom District, Laos: An Ex-Post Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-16, March.
    18. Agostinho, Feni & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B. & Bonilla, Silvia H. & Sacomano, José B. & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2013. "Urban solid waste plant treatment in Brazil: Is there a net emergy yield on the recovered materials?," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 143-155.
    19. Salas-Urviola, Fernando B. & Calsina-Paricahua, Lesmes G. & Vilca-Salas, Ayde C., 2021. "Analysis of the formalization process of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM): Case region Puno-Peru," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    20. Puppim de Oliveira, Jose Antonio & Ali, Saleem H., 2011. "Gemstone mining as a development cluster: A study of Brazil's emerald mines," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 132-141, June.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:11:p:2034-:d:118878. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.