From Gold to Lithium: Tracing Ghana’s Mining Trajectories Through a Historical Political Ecology Lens

This article offers a historical political ecology analysis of Ghana’s mining sector, tracing its development trajectories, key actors, environmental impacts, and state interventions. Although previous studies have examined the economic, policy, and ecological dimensions of mining, much of it remains temporally fragmented, offering limited insight into long-term trends. This study bridges that gap by situating current challenges within a broader historical context to inform sustainable policy pathways, particularly as Ghana moves into critical mineral extraction. Drawing on secondary sources, this article highlights how neoliberal reforms since the 1980s have shaped Ghana’s mining policies, with significant environmental implications. The findings reveal how ecological concerns were largely neglected until degradation reached critical levels, prompting reactive and often inadequate policy interventions. As Ghana’s mining frontier expands to include strategic resources like lithium and graphite, this article calls for historically informed, ecologically sensitive policy frameworks to prevent the repetition of past environmental and social injustices.