The challenge
Illegal small-scale gold mining — known locally as galamsey — has devastated the region around Kumasi. Our partner reports roughly 40% of forests degraded and 60% of water bodies polluted, with mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium flowing into drinking water, farmland, and rivers.
These metals don’t wash away. They accumulate in people and ecosystems for decades, and the communities exposed have almost no technical resources to fight back.
Our solution
With the Nyankonton Aid Foundation we’ve scoped a pilot on two fronts. Reactive: low-cost, community-producible filters — biochar to capture mercury, bone char for lead and cadmium, and dolomite or limestone to neutralize acid mine drainage that can drop rivers to pH 2.5–4. Proactive: converting miners from mercury to the gravity-borax method.
The borax switch is the elegant part: it’s non-toxic and recovers over 90% of the gold versus about 75% with mercury — so going clean actually pays miners more. (The WHO mercury limit is just 2 parts per billion; these communities live far above it.)
We publish our status honestly: the work is paused while the Ghanaian government approves our participation. Nothing is spent until it can proceed responsibly.
Who does what
We are force multipliers, not occupiers — the local partner leads and we supply the science, the design, and the funding.
- Design the contamination assessment and analysis
- Engineer community metal-removal treatment
- Advise on cutting mercury at the mining source
- Support our partner’s grant and approval process
- Lead local research and field teams (Nyankonton)
- Liaise with government and communities
- Run long-term monitoring once cleared
The team behind it
Volunteer scientists and engineers donating their expertise to this project — click anyone to see their work.
From the field
