Sustainable solution or a marriage of inconvenience? The coexistence of large-scale mining and artisanal and small-scale mining on the Abosso Goldfields concession in Western Ghana

This article explores the key issues that have defined relations between operators in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and large-scale mining (LSM) sectors, with emphasis on the mining terrain of Ghana since the early-1990s. The relationship between these mining parties has become increasingly tenuous in Ghana, often culminating in violent confrontation between ASM operators, on the one hand, and LSM and state security forces, on the other hand. The analysis draws on a pragmatic approach which Abosso Goldfields Limited (AGL), one of the country's major large-scale operators, adopted to accommodate ASM operators on its concession, and examines the sustainability of the approach as well as the lessons to be learnt from it.