For years, conversations surrounding Ghana's illegal mining (galamsey) crisis have largely focused on the destruction of land and, more recently, the devastating impact of heavy, equipment like excavators, on the country's major water bodies.
But 's latest investigation has uncovered something even more unsettling at Wassa Akropong, one of the Western Region's most notorious galamsey hubs.
Beyond the visible scars on the land and polluted rivers, a thriving, under-reported gold market is quietly driving the persistence of illegal mining activities.
in the special report discovered that over 100 gold-buying shops operating in Wassa Akropong are silently fuelling this growing menace, providing a ready market that emboldens thousands of young men and women to repeatedly return to the earth in search of gold.
