🔴 Toxic Gold: the heavy toll of Ghana's illegal gold rush скачать в хорошем качестве

🔴 Toxic Gold: the heavy toll of Ghana's illegal gold rush

In our first #GreenCrimes investigation, conducted in collaboration with The Fourth Estate and The Reporters Collective, we uncovered the toll of Ghana's illegal gold mines. Farmers are evicted to expand mines, gold is trafficked, and money is openly laundered. Violence is omnipresent in southwestern Ghana, the epicenter of the country’s gold rush, and journalists trying to report on it have been abducted, beaten or received death threats. Using satellite imagery from 2024 and Earth Index’s AI model, we’ve pinpointed the areas most affected by mining in southwestern Ghana. The algorithm analyzes the distinctive patterns of artisanal mining operations, allowing us to identify nearly 150,000 hectares of mining sites — some located in protected areas. By cross-referencing this data with Ghanaian official mining concession GPS coordinates, we found that over 75% of these sites, whether active or abandoned, lie outside legal zones, making them illegal. These unregulated mines cover an area more than six times the size of Washington, D.C. 👉 Watch our video for more revelations. 🔗 Full story available online: https://forbiddenstories.org/projects... - Also available on @LeMonde’s website