Poisoned for gold: Illegal miners use mercury to collect gold, exposing residents to danger | The Big Stories
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Irresponsible mining generates tailings, a by-product of the sluicing process in extracting the gold.
00:09 These are done haphazardly without a recourse to environmental safety and protection.
00:16 Consequently, the heavy metals in the tailings are released into water bodies, the soil, food chain, surface and groundwater.
00:27 This type of uncontrolled mining introduces naturally occurring poisonous heavy metals into water bodies like the pra.
00:38 The Environmental Protection Agency in its research conducted on fishes in the Tano River in 2022 revealed alarming levels of mercury.
00:49 Dr. Jackson Edeye Nyantachi is the half original director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
00:59 He spoke at a transformational dialogue on small scale mining organized by the University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyane.
01:09 In fish samples that were taken from the river tunnel at the Tano area there, I thought I was just doing something simple.
01:19 But when I realized the levels of mercury in the fish samples, I became so alarmed.
01:24 I looked at the levels in the fish muscles, the head, the gills, the eye and the bones.
01:31 The highest concentration was in the gills. The bones were also there. So since then I have stopped eating the head of the fish as well as the bones.
01:40 I only eat the muscles and that is it.
01:42 There's an actual link between heavy metal found in the soil and food.
01:47 Dr. Albert Kobunamensa is a research scientist with a PhD in heavy metals in mine affected tailings and soil, forest, water and land degradation.
02:00 He reveals the link between these poisonous metals and food grown from these areas.
02:07 I collected samples from Oboase, areas that are contaminated with arsenic, with cadmium, with lead and copper.
02:15 And we cultivated the soil in a pot in a greenhouse.
02:21 In fact there were alarming concentrations of heavy metal that were accumulated in the lettuce.
02:26 [Music]
02:36 Well I know you want to see more. I also want to see more.
02:47 And that's why we'll make a date later tonight at 8.30pm when that full documentary produced by Erastus Asaridonko is aired.
02:55 And I'm so pleased to have him here. I call him my favourite person.
03:00 And also because he was a judge, the EMY, PAV and sub-communicator of the year at the just ended EMY awards.
03:10 Congratulations and order my brother. You've done so well.
03:13 I mean before we even go into the details of that documentary, I am just curious.
03:18 Your life has been threatened. You've had to make huge sacrifices not only for yourself but your family.
03:24 You keep doing this. What in the world is motivating you?
03:30 Well if you've been to the field before and you've seen the devastation, you've seen the pollution first hand.
03:40 And you get first hand information that this is poisoning thousands if not millions of Ghanaians.
03:49 Silently. And they don't even know.
03:53 You cannot sleep on it. And you feel like you owe it a duty to keep on doing what you're doing.
03:59 Because one, it affects your family. It affects you. It affects your descendants who are yet to come.
04:06 So the moment we stop, it's like giving in to the problem and saying that, okay, let it continue.
04:12 Expecting that something, a catastrophe will happen in future and you never did anything about it.
04:18 Right. And the other leg of this is that we were hoping that the kind of commitment that we had government put towards this fight
04:29 would have lasted at least even if we didn't see the fight. Because this is a fight really.
04:34 And you don't expect that the other parties who are benefiting selfishly will just throw in the towel.
04:41 They would also try to put in a fight. So you would have expected that at least
04:45 the level of commitment we saw from the president himself, from governments,
04:51 the sort of energy that was pushed behind this thing would have lasted. We don't see it.
04:56 But you say you will still keep up the fight. It's been a long journey coming to this point.
05:03 You've done stories, exposing top politicians, officials involved.
05:08 We haven't really seen anything done about that. You didn't give up.
05:11 Now you've extended the conversation for all of us to understand that we are all at risk if we do not do something.
05:19 Tell us beyond what we've seen some of the important reasons why we should make a date with you at 8.30 p.m.
05:27 later tonight to see that documentary. So since 2014, I started following illegal mining
05:34 and I've done reports coming in right at this time. I expected. And we don't just do the reports for fun.
05:43 The documentary is just to get awards or accolades. No, that's not the motivation.
05:48 We want duty bearers to do something about it. And so far that is lacking.
05:54 And consistently we are hearing narratives. I'll call that rhetorics.
06:00 And they keep spinning them to make people believe that we are doing something about it.
06:06 But on the ground, nothing has been done about it. So we are moving away from now.
06:13 We've shown you the evidence from last year, from 2018 coming. We've shown you the evidence, the distraction and all that.
06:19 Now we felt that the focus should be on how that affects you so that if the duty bearers are not doing anything about it,
06:27 what are the citizens doing? And so we want to use this to open the conversation to public health.
06:35 And indeed, if you watch the documentary today, the first part of it, you'll be seeing how illegal mining is affecting even the unborn baby in your womb.
06:47 So far, Professor Sampene has seen four babies on the ground.
06:53 We got witnesses who came forward to tell us, yes, I had a baby who was deformed.
06:58 When we tested, we were told that it's because of the environment, but because of stigma,
07:03 these people, some of them will not even come on our cameras.
07:06 So we're giving you evidence that this is affecting even unborn babies.
07:11 It is affecting young people between the ages of 18 and 30, kidney related ailments and all that,
07:20 so that the conversation will move from just seeing the polluted waters you see around,
07:25 the distraction in your community, to demanding that government and duty bearers do something about it.
07:32 And Erastus, so the conversation even goes beyond the people who live in these communities.
07:37 Yes.
07:38 Because when you go to the market, your fish is not tagged, is it?
07:41 Ah, yes.
07:42 So in there, in the promotions or the promos we've been playing,
07:48 there's actually one of the scientists who was raising concerns about it.
07:53 These chemicals have been seeping into water bodies that may not be even closely linked to these sites
08:01 where the Galamsey activities are being carried out.
08:05 You remember last year with Distraction for Gold, we displayed the samples of water in front of us.
08:11 Well, they are make here than we displayed the other time.
08:14 This time we are not showing it because we want you to see what is in them, which is not visible to you.
08:20 Right.
08:21 But then they are there.
08:22 We fetched samples from all the major rivers, polluted rivers across the country,
08:29 and we tested them at the laboratory.
08:31 We found chromium, we found arsenic, we have lead, in some cases we have cadmium in them,
08:41 the waters you see flowing around.
08:43 And this permeates into the soil columns.
08:46 And in fact, we went to some areas, some scientists, Dr. Albert and his people, Professor Ahin,
08:53 they have done exclusive work in some areas that they shared with us,
08:59 that they found levels, high levels of mercury, lead and other things in soil where vegetables are grown.
09:08 Wow.
09:09 And Dr. Albert, for example, did some tests on lettuce.
09:14 And the absorption rate by lettuce is so high into the leaves.
09:21 So it tells you that you could be in Accra.
09:24 Right.
09:25 You could be in Kumasi.
09:26 You could be wherever.
09:28 The food, like you said, is not labeled.
09:30 You don't know where they are grown.
09:32 You don't know where the fishes are caught.
09:34 You had the EPA man talking about his research.
09:37 So it's something that affects all of us.
09:42 And so we should move away from talking.
09:45 We've talked so much.
09:47 We've talked too much.
09:48 Let's move into action.
09:50 Let us see something being done about it.
09:53 This is an emergency.
09:55 And government should not be seen to be relaxing.
09:58 Yeah, it is an emergency indeed.
10:00 And I mean, when he was just talking about lettuce and all the vegetables that some of us would rather opt for because we want to live healthy.
10:07 Of course.
10:08 You may end up poisoning yourself because there's some irresponsible people in our society who are just thinking about making their pockets fat.
10:16 And so they don't care what happens to you.
10:19 So basically what Erastus and the team want you to do is to watch this documentary, please.
10:25 Don't treat it like any other documentary.
10:30 This is a call to action, not for politicians alone because we have relied on them for how many years now?
10:37 And nothing has been done.
10:38 It's now time for you and I to see what's at stake for us.
10:43 OK, and our children and the crisis that we literally have on our hands and take the necessary steps.
10:52 So Erastus, beyond this, we said we want Ghanaians to understand what's at stake to put up.
10:58 But what's the big dream?
11:01 Are we hoping to have a certain thought leadership?
11:05 I know we've been doing this for a long time, but I mean, we cannot give up, can we?
11:09 We just need to keep pushing.
11:11 Yes, and as part of what we are doing, the COO of this company, Ken Ansa, and Kwaku Usupepra,
11:21 and Fifi Kumsendi are putting together a thought leadership program on this.
11:25 And definitely we'll bring the experts to talk about it.
11:27 On Joy FM this morning, we are bringing experts to talk about this as well.
11:33 Mind you, we interviewed this young man, and you'll be seeing that in the first part this evening.
11:39 He smells gold, and you know that they use mercury.
11:42 All the illegal miners use mercury, though it's supposed to be banned.
11:47 They use mercury to trap the gold, and they have to burn the mercury off the amalgam to be able to reveal the gold.
11:59 And he does this within the community, and research has proven, and in fact, Dr. Eugene Ansa with KU University
12:06 used a mercury analyzer to analyze the air, common air that everybody is breathing in such areas.
12:14 And they found high levels of mercury suspended, and you are breathing that.
12:19 You are exposed, just like the person who is burning it.
12:23 And we have many of these gold smelting points scattered across the country.
12:28 So what are we doing to even the airspace that we breathe?
12:32 So I think that one duty-bearer should do a large-scale research of the impact of mining on our environment, on public health.
12:45 And I think they will find solutions to some of the ailments that have been traveling without any solution.
12:53 And it will inform a health policy that will help all of us live healthily.
12:59 But the big dream is to see this end, this whole illegal mining menace, because these people are unregulated.
13:09 Their activities aren't monitored. You just spoke about the fact that mercury is not supposed to be.
13:14 So who is even, how do they get, how do they access the mercury in the first place? Who is bringing it into the country?
13:19 It will shock you to know that it can be purchased on the market freely. Yes, and it's expensive.
13:26 So that's another point of it. The availability of the chemical that is killing all of us.
13:32 And we have signed, we are part of the Minamata Convention, which seeks to regulate the use or even stop the use of mercury in gold mining.
13:42 And we are still using mercury across the country. Many of these small-scale miners use it.
13:48 Government has tried to bring in the gold catcher and try to encourage more small-scale miners to go into it.
13:57 But many of them we have found say they cannot afford it. The machine is expensive. They cannot afford it.
14:04 And you see, because we are not regulating it, because it's a sector that is not properly regulated,
14:11 you find that many of them are hiding to do it. And when they are hiding, all manner of irregularities happen.
14:21 Because then they use the wrong methods and they use the banned substances to attract the gold.
14:27 But if we were to be regulating it properly, knowing who is where, and be able to monitor very well, just like they're supposed to do,
14:35 then definitely they will not use mercury or they will not use any unapproved means because they know inspectors will come around and they will check.
14:43 Erastus, you're such an amazing person, I have to be honest with you.
14:48 Thank you.
14:49 Because, I mean, at least I know first-hand what you've had to go through doing this work, going onto the field, gathering the information, putting his life at risk.
15:01 And the least we can do is to support his effort. He's one man, but when we all put in our effort, when we all support his effort,
15:10 then we become a force, a force that is big enough to make a difference.
15:15 So tonight, simply this, at 8.30pm, you're going to be seeing a documentary put together by Erastus Asare-Donko,
15:23 the winner of the EMY-PAV and SACC Communicator of the Year, very well-deserved one, I must say.
15:30 And he will be showing you why you should be interested. He will be showing you why you should not throw in the towel in this fight against illegal mining.
15:42 He will prove to you why your health and that of your loved ones is at risk because of a few selfish people.
15:53 I mean, for me, Erastus, any time I hear you on radio or I see your documentaries, I ask myself, what again, what again do we want to see?
16:05 And you always take it a notch higher because, I mean, when I saw Destruction for Good, I was like, wow, that is some good work.
16:13 And I mean, we almost felt like we had exhausted all the angles of the illegal mining menace.
16:20 And then you bring Poison for Gold, which, you know, takes it a notch higher.
16:25 But for me, the big question is, and if you're a politician and you're watching me, if you are the president,
16:34 and I want to believe the president will see this or the vice president or the minister in charge of mining, what else do you want to see?
16:44 What else? This man has shown us so much and he continues to show us so much.
16:53 Mr. President, you are even at risk. Your water, your food, everybody is at risk, literally.
17:02 What else do we want to see? Erastus, I don't know if you've ever felt like that.
17:07 Yeah, yeah. And I've had some people call me and they ask me, why are you still doing this?
17:15 But do we stop? The answer is no. You don't stop until what is driving you or what is following you has stopped.
17:27 And so we will not stop. And in fact, when we looked at this, we found that in some of the babies, we found cyanide.
17:37 Cyanide is not used by artisanal miners. They are used by the large scale mining companies.
17:44 It throws in an idea, which of course could be the next point of study or documentary.
17:53 So we don't stop. But let me say thank you to four fantastic gentlemen.
18:02 Kufi Asare is my camera technician. He edits the videos you see. He takes the videos you see with my direction.
18:13 Majid is a drone pilot. Amos, Mike and Adi, they are the drivers who take us to some of these critical areas.
18:24 And they risk their lives with me. So wherever I go, I want to thank them and their families.
18:30 And to all those people who have been encouraging us, some of the people, they give us support in so many ways.
18:36 And they don't even want us to mention their names. They are Ghanians and we love them.
18:41 And we say thank you to all of them. But to the duty bearers, I say if you continue to spin that narrative that everything is all right.
18:52 Well. The dangers are on the ground and they are not all right.
18:59 And it will soon catch up with you. You might think that you are running away from it.
19:03 You make millions so you can import water to drink. You can fly out of the country when you need it.
19:12 It will affect somebody in your family, generations to come after you are dead and gone.
19:17 So this is the time to do something about it. You can do something about it. It's not like we can't do anything about it. We can.
19:25 If the President says today that we want this to end, it will end.
19:30 If the last minister really means it and he says I want this to stop and I'm going to do something about it, he can.
19:38 If the citizens rise and they say this is affecting us, we want it to stop, we can stop. So are the chiefs. Let's do something about it.
19:50 Let's do something about it. Join us at 8.30pm later tonight for the first part of the Poison for Gold documentary.
19:57 But you've heard me say that Erastus Asaradonko just won the EMYP of the Anzac Communicator of the Year.
20:04 Tell us more about that. And I saw you, I think it's the first time I've seen you in a bull tie.
20:12 I was like, oh, who's letting my brother do this anyway?
20:16 I'm not the type.
20:18 At all.
20:21 Because I'm always on the field, I call it wretched.
20:27 But it was good to see you.
20:30 It's a great, great honour. And I've received some awards this year.
20:35 The EMI award is good. It's good. And I really like it. It has affected my morale as well.
20:43 Same as the other awards that we received, the Environmental Sustainability Personality of the Year by the Department of Planning, KUSD.
20:52 Fantastic one there. The GJA also gave me an award this year. A great one.
20:58 So we are motivated by it. The CIMG award. And we want more.
21:06 Yeah. And also because it helps us at least reach a certain level of the society as well.
21:14 Because I know that the EMY awards is one with very, I don't want to use the word elitist,
21:22 but there's a certain level of network of business people who are the focal point of this whole award scheme.
21:30 Yes. And when you meet distinguished people around the table supporting this cause, the EMI awards,
21:40 you see how prestigious it is. And just to know that I did not apply for this award.
21:48 Knowing that somebody somewhere just sat down, saw what you're doing and said,
21:54 "No, this is good. Let's give you an award." It's a recognition that knows no boundaries.
22:01 And so we welcome that. And to all those who continue to support us, we say, I echo to you and God bless you.
22:10 Yeah. And to all the people who were there, I know, especially those who have certain voices.
22:19 Because we know that the people would, I pray that they didn't just applaud you,
22:24 but they would also use their voices to push this agenda, this heartbeat of yours,
22:32 which is to see that this whole menace is ended. And so I thank you, EMY, and thank you whoever nominated Erastus.
22:41 At least I'm happy I have seen Erastus in a bow tie.
22:46 And that is just to also thank the SEI Newsroom. The SEI Newsroom is the Said Ali Yakub Newsroom.
22:57 And may his soul rest in perfect peace. He supported us a lot.
23:01 I would have wished that Elvis Kwashi would be here to see this. May his soul rest in peace as well.
23:08 Thank you, Kofi Adudunfe, head of the SEI Newsroom, to all the team members in Kumasi,
23:14 to Ken Ansa, Jim Agla, who has been pushing me to get awards and encouraging me to do this.
23:21 Thank you so much. To my wife, Adwoa Ochoa Osang.
23:26 Hello, Adwoa. It's been a while.
23:29 My son, Jesse. I love all of you. Kelvin and Stella, I love all of you.
23:36 Thank you so much, Erastus. And I mean, we just we just pray that the impact we'd like to see with all the efforts that Erastus and the team have put in
23:50 comes sooner than we wish, because the longer we wait, the more trouble and devastation is caused.
23:58 Yes. And we don't want that. No, we don't want that.
24:02 So please, we're calling everyone. We're calling you because you have a voice.
24:06 You are a citizen. You have power, not only power to speak up, but power to decide who leads us.
24:15 That is the amount of power we have as citizens collectively.
24:18 So let's use that power to bring the change that we all desire.
24:23 And I mean, I wish this conversation will not end, but we have to release Erastus to attend to other matters as well.
24:31 But Erastus, thank you so much. Thank you.
24:33 And I know that posterity will show and will be the best vindicator of everything you've done.
24:42 And we are so blessed to have you as part of our team. Thank you so much for staying.
24:47 My favourite person. So we'll see you in Kumasi very soon. Hello, Team Kumasi. Our love to you will be there very soon.
24:55 But it's now time to talk about the National Science and Maths quiz and talking about science and maths quiz and this illegal mining menace.
25:03 Maybe we should begin a science project for the young people about, you know, how they can also use their innovation,
25:12 bring up things to solve the real problems that we are dealing with now. That will be interesting.
25:17 But I'll be back with more on the NSNQ 2023. Do stay.
25:21 [Music]