Appropriate technologies or appropriating technologies? Technopolitics within artisanal and small-scale mining in Ghana

This article contributes to the discourse on the significance of “appropriate” technologies in formalising artisanal and small-scale gold miners' activities. By raising the question of what or who defines what is “appropriate” for artisanal miners, the paper engages critically with the ignored and complicated spatial and temporal dynamics that underpin miners’ decisions regarding technologies and the impact of these choices on the political ecology of artisanal gold mining. Until recently, technologies used by small and artisanal miners have been known to be crude and rudimentary, with deleterious impacts on the natural environment. Hence, the policy drive to formalise illegal miners has emphasised the essence of appropriate technologies, depoliticizing the complex underpinning factors that shape technology adoption and rejection. Thus, the paper focuses on two technologies that have become prevalent in the artisanal mining scene in Ghana, i.e. the Chinese Changfa and the Trommel, to demonstrate the complex and myriad ways miners determine which technology is appropriate. Appropriate technologies, the paper argues, are determined based on a multifaceted combination of socio-political, economic, ecological, biophysical and cultural factors. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these observations on the formalisation of artisanal miners amid the increasing demand for energy transition minerals in developing economies. • The study explores the intersection of technological adoption and political ecology in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM) in Ghana. • With a key focus on Changfa and Trommel technologies, miners find ways to adapt and adopt technologies to subvert state strict laws while serving multiple socio-economic needs. • Miners rely on political, cultural, economic, and ecological factors to define what technology is appropriate for their work. • The paper underscores how these dynamics shape the political economy of artisanal and small-scale mining, particularly in formalising miners amid Net-Zero ambitions.