Anti-corruption advocate Kofi Asare has likened Ghana’s efforts to combat illegal mining, known locally as galamsey, to a futile “COS 90” exercise, arguing that authorities are targeting impoverished miners while shielding financiers who enable the practice.
The Executive Director of education nonprofit EduWatch claims recent arrests of small-scale operators ignore the wealthy backers supplying equipment and funds.
“Galamsey is terrorism. Arresting the boys while the tap remains on is like mopping water from the floor,” Asare wrote on social media, referencing the trigonometric term cosine 90°—a metaphor for zero progress. “Without tracing and prosecuting the big fishes funding excavators, these raids achieve nothing.”
His critique follows a government operation in Samreboi, where 47 alleged illegal miners were detained and transported to Accra for prosecution. While officials describe such raids as part of intensified efforts to protect forests and waterways, critics note that high-profile figures linked to mining syndicates rarely face consequences.
The debate underscores persistent challenges in Ghana’s decade-long fight against galamsey, which has devastated ecosystems and contaminated water supplies despite periodic crackdowns. Analysts observe that low-income youth often bear the brunt of enforcement, while politically connected financiers evade scrutiny due to weak regulatory oversight and alleged complicity within institutions.
Ghana’s government has repeatedly pledged to tackle the crisis, including deploying military task forces and destroying illegal mining equipment. Yet the sector remains entrenched, driven by gold prices and limited economic alternatives in rural areas. Similar patterns have been documented in other resource-rich African nations, where artisanal mining reforms often stall without addressing systemic corruption or providing sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable communities.
As pressure mounts to preserve natural resources, Asare’s remarks highlight a growing demand for accountability beyond symbolic arrests. “Until the architects of this destruction are held responsible,” one environmental policy expert noted, “Ghana’s forests will keep paying the price.”
