The biggest mining workforce in Africa does not wear a corporate badge. An estimated ten million people in sub-Saharan Africa work as artisanal and small-scale miners, and by most counts they make up about 90 percent of the continent’s mining workforce. In 2025 they did something no analyst had on a chart: in Ghana, small-scale miners out-produced the large-scale industry for the first time in over a century. If you sell into African mining and your picture stops at the majors, you are looking at half the industry.
What counts as artisanal and small-scale mining?
Everything from a licensed ten-person operation with excavators and a wash plant down to individual diggers panning rivers. The sector is usually shortened to ASM. Most of it is informal: roughly 90 percent of the world’s artisanal miners work without the licences the law requires, and in Ghana an estimated 70 to 80 percent of small-scale miners are unregistered. Informal does not mean marginal. Globally, ASM supplies around a quarter of tin and tantalum, a meaningful slice of cobalt from the DRC, and a rising share of gold.
How big did Ghana’s small-scale sector just get?
Very. Small-scale and artisanal miners delivered 3.11 million ounces in 2025, 52.4 percent of Ghana’s record national output, overtaking the large-scale industry for the first time in more than a hundred years. The state buyer GoldBod purchased and exported about 104 tonnes of small-scale gold in 2025, generating close to 11 billion dollars in foreign exchange, more than the large-scale sector’s 9 billion. Mid-2026 purchase rates suggest this year will match or beat it. The large-company side of that story is covered in our top 10 mining companies in Ghana guide.
Is small-scale the same as illegal?
No, and the distinction matters. Ghana licenses small-scale mining for its citizens. The illegal, unlicensed version is what Ghanaians call galamsey, and it is a national crisis in its own right, poisoning rivers with mercury and stripping forest cover. Governments are trying to pull miners across the line: Ghana created GoldBod in 2025 to buy legally, Zimbabwe channels its more than 500,000 small-scale miners through a state buyer, and formalisation programmes run from Tanzania to the DRC. Progress is real but slow, because registration is costly and the gold price makes digging now more attractive than paperwork.
Why should suppliers care about ASM?
Three reasons. First, scale: ten million miners buy pumps, generators, crushers, PPE and earthmoving equipment, mostly through dealers rather than tenders. Second, the licensed upper end of small-scale mining is professionalising fast, and a licensed miner with three excavators is a customer. Third, ASM moves markets that majors operate in: when half of Ghana’s gold comes from small pits, it shapes logistics, security and government policy for everyone. The DRC’s cobalt supply chain is the sharpest example, where artisanal ore feeds the same market as industrial mines.
What this means for suppliers
Treat ASM as a parallel market with its own channels. The entry points are equipment dealers, licensed mining cooperatives and the state buying programmes, not procurement portals. And watch the formalisation drives, because every miner who registers becomes a reachable customer. AMIQ tracks 2,200+ African mining projects with verified owner and engineer contacts across the formal industry, the market ASM increasingly trades alongside. Join at AMIQ, and see mining in Ghana, mining in Zimbabwe and gold mining in Africa for the country pictures.
Frequently asked questions
How many people work in small-scale mining in Africa?
An estimated ten million people in sub-Saharan Africa, making up about 90 percent of the continent’s mining workforce. Worldwide, at least 45 million people in 80 countries work in artisanal and small-scale mining.
What is galamsey?
Ghana’s term for illegal, unlicensed small-scale mining. It sits apart from the legal, licensed small-scale sector, and its mercury pollution and river damage have made it a national political issue.
Do small-scale miners really out-produce the big companies?
In Ghana, yes. Small-scale and artisanal miners produced 3.11 million ounces in 2025, 52.4 percent of national output, the first time they have overtaken large-scale mining in over a century.
