Galamsey Tracker
Galamsey Tracker

At least 712 towns and villages have land cleared within a kilometre of them.

Satellites saw 17,750 hectares of land cleared across 8 areas of Ghana's southern gold belt in the 12 months up to 26 October 2026.

The town with the most cleared land around it: Abompe, Ahafo Ano South East

Satellite image of the place on 5 January 2025, before the clearing was first seen Before Taken 5 Jan 2025 Satellite image of the same place on 22 October 2026 After Taken 22 Oct 2026
Within 1 km of Abompe, satellites saw 106 hectares cleared, in 6 patches. These pictures show the largest patch (85 hectares), first seen on 14 November 2025. The register shows no mining licence on this land. Each week we show the town with the most cleared land around it, so the town here can change. The ring sits on the cleared patch. Tap a picture to enlarge and zoom in.

Other towns and villages with the most cleared land around them

Each pair shows one of the largest cleared patches within 1 km of the town, before and after. The ring sits on the patch. Tap a picture to enlarge and zoom in.

The labels come from the Minerals Commission's public licence register. We check it every week, last on 30 October 2026. Mining without a licence is illegal in Ghana, and that is what galamsey is. Read what each label means

Likely galamsey is our own guess, not part of the register. We add it where the register shows no licence to mine and the satellite sees water in or next to the cleared patch, because mining pits fill with water. A place without this label can still be galamsey. How the guess works

Town and village points come from OpenStreetMap, which misses many villages, so the true count may be higher.

See all 6,558 places on the map

24,860 football pitches. That is how much land 17,750 hectares is.

83% of it is on land with no licence to mine, going by the Minerals Commission's register.

Most of the cleared land shows signs of mining in the pictures: pits, bare orange ground and muddy ponds. Small, new patches less often do. How we checked

Where the mud goes

52% of the cleared land, 9,250 hectares, lies on land that drains into the River Pra above the Daboase water treatment plant. Daboase supplies Sekondi-Takoradi.

When it rains, mud from cleared land and mining pits washes into the rivers, and the more mud there is, the harder and dearer the water is to treat. Clearing upstream does not tell us how much mud reaches a plant on a given day.

Five water treatment plants downstream of the areas we cover

  • Daboase on the Pra 9,250 ha Supplies Sekondi-Takoradi, with the Inchaban plant August 2026 Mud in the Pra at Daboase reached more than 20 times the permitted level. Drone footage showed mining right opposite the plant's intake. Citi Newsroom
  • Weija on the Densu 233 ha Supplies central and western Accra May 2026 Potroase, where the Densu comes down from the Atewa hills, has become a hotspot for illegal mining. Water Resources Commission data show the river getting dirtier there and at Weija over five years. The Fourth Estate
  • Kwanyako on the Ayensu 144 ha Supplies Winneba, Swedru and Kasoa September 2025 Ghana Water said mud in the Ayensu reached more than 12 times what the plant was built to treat. GNAMay 2026 Ghana Water records show the plant was shut for 2,541 hours in 2025, more than 100 days, because of mud and silt. The Fourth Estate
  • Barekese on the Offin 125 ha Supplies Greater Kumasi, with Owabi April 2025 Ghana Water raised prices partly over the cost of treating water hit by illegal mining. Its Ashanti manager warned that if the Offin, Barekese's main source, is not protected, Barekese will be down. MyJoyOnline
  • Owabi on the Owabi 3 ha Supplies Greater Kumasi, with Barekese

Hectares cleared in the last 12 months on the land that drains to each plant. Smaller water works on these rivers are not listed.

Map of southern Ghana. The Pra and its tributaries drain a large area from north of Kumasi down to the Daboase treatment plant near the coast. 9,250 hectares of the cleared land lie in that area. The smaller areas that drain to the Barekese, Owabi, Weija and Kwanyako plants are outlined and hold little cleared land.
  • Land that drains to the Daboase plant
  • Cleared land there (bigger square, more land)
  • Land that drains to one of the other water plants
  • Cleared land that drains to other rivers, not the Pra

Daboase stands out because most of the cleared land we cover is in the Pra basin.

Map: country outline from geoBoundaries, rivers and drainage areas from HydroSHEDS (HydroRIVERS and HydroBASINS, Lehner and Grill 2013). It shows only the 6,558 patches in the eight areas we cover, so clearing outside them is not on it.

Which districts

Hectares cleared in the last 12 months, by district. Pick one to see its places on the map.

DistrictHectares
Wassa Amenfi East 1,553
Aowin 981
Atiwa West 789
Atwima Mponua 788
Wassa Amenfi Central 784
Wassa Amenfi West 757
Amansie Central 704
Amansie South 702
See every place on the map

What licence is on the land

We check every patch against the Minerals Commission's register of active licences. The register also says who holds each licence. We leave the names out, because a licence on the land does not show who cleared it.

  • No licence to mine12,906 ha73%
  • Prospecting licence only1,888 ha11%
  • Small-scale mining licence100 ha1%
  • Large-scale mining lease2,856 ha16%

A prospecting licence lets a company explore for gold. It does not allow mining. Clearing inside a small-scale licence or a large-scale lease may be licensed mining.

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