Artisanal gold mining in Batouri area, East Cameroon: Impacts on the mining population and their environment

Abstract

Batouri is located in the East region of Cameroon; geologically the area is made up of Pan African granitoids, which are the host rocks of gold mineralization. Batouri gold deposits have long been subjected to artisanal mining activities carried out by the indigenes for livelihood. Majority of the mining population (45%) is made up by youths (15-30 years), followed by the adults (35%) within the age range 46-60 years old. Adults within the age range 31-45 years constitute only about 5% of the mining population. Female artisans constitute 35% out of the total mining population and are involved in all the stages. The artisanal gold mining has caused damage on the environment which directly or indirectly affects the population. The standard of living of the miners in Batouri is still very poor giving rise to high rate of school drop outs, high rate of prostitution, poor hygienic conditions and health challenges. Artisanal gold mining is also very destructive to the environment causing severe deforestation; land degradation; destruction of the forest ecosystem. From these findings, it is recommended that the government re-enforce committees that will do a daily follow up of mining activities; train artisans on doing sustainable mining.

The Livelihood of Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners and Awareness of the Use of 3T Minerals in Rwanda—A Case Study in the Rutsiro District: A Qualitative Assessment

“…Miners and stakeholders were identified, approached, and interviewed through snowball sampling and the support of assistants in the mining company in the Rutsiro mining site. Methodology of snowball sampling is used in similar research by Bansah et al [14] in Ghana and also by Kouankap et al [15] in Cameroon, by Arthur-Holmes [16] in Ghana, and by Baffour-Kyei et al [17] in Ghana and Postma and Geenen in Rwanda [18]. Snowball sampling was chosen due to the suitability of the participants in the case study.…”

Mercury exposure among artisanal and small-scale gold miners in four gold mining districts in the East Region of Cameroon

“…Majority of our subjects (88.3%) had attended some schooling, and the highest level of education attained was secondary education. Sana et al, (2017) in Burkina Faso revealed that over two third of the artisan miners in their study were without any formal education, while two previous studies in Cameroon showed that the highest level of education attained by a majority was primary level (Kouankap et al, 2017;Ralph et al, 2018). The very fact that ASGM is a poverty-driven activity could explain its negative impacts on education.…”

“…Recruitment of study participants and selection of the mining sites was done through nonprobability convenience sampling based on participants' involvement in ASGM, and proximity of the mining sites respectively. A total of 60 participants were recruited as follows: Batouri (18), Kette (17), Ngoura (12) and Bétaré-Oya (13).…”

Typology of Environmental Impacts of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in African Great Lakes Region

“…Hentschel, Hruschka, and Priester in their joint publications: Global Report on Artisanal & Small-Scale Mining [14] and Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining-Challenges and Opportunities [38] focus on socioeconomic aspects that accompany the environmental aspects of ASM. ASM is often mentioned in connection with gold mining, where environmental degradation occurs as a result of mercury usage [31,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. Mercury can then contaminate water resources, soil, air, and can also enter the human body, as confirmed by research in mining sites around the world.…”