Cracking Down on Illegal Gold Mining in Ghana

Following the Gold Trail, From Mines to Markets

Illegal gold mining (galamsey) continues to threaten Ghana’s environment, economic resilience, and social cohesion. While headlines often focus on deforestation or mercury contamination, a more elusive dimension fuels the problem: the unseen supply chain that moves gold from illegal extraction zones through laundering points and out of the country.

Who’s moving it? Where is it going? And how are these networks sustained?

To answer these questions, AKTEK iS launched a geolocation-driven investigation, powered by AKTEK iQ AREAS stream and structured through AKTEK iO. The goal: reveal how unregulated gold flows through Ghana and beyond, and identify the actors and nodes facilitating it.

Our Approach: Using Geolocation Data to Map Supply Chain Behavior

Over a two-month period, AKTEK iS conducted a structured investigation using billions of anonymized GPS signals from AKTEK iQ. Our team focused on activity in and around:

• Suspected illegal mining and processing sites
• Foreign-owned casinos, gold shops, hotels, and restaurants
• Border crossings, ports, and key airports
• Domestic hubs including Tarkwa, Kumasi, Accra, Takoradi, and Tema
  

With over 9,000 suspicious anonymous devices across nearly 280 flagged locations, we layered the results inside AKTEK iO to trace patterns of movement, repetition, overlap, and potential coordination. What we uncovered was a networked ecosystem of gold extraction, movement, and export.

What Our Investigation Uncovered

Domestic Movement & Operational Hubs

• Extraction zones like Superstone Mine and the Afuanta cluster showed persistent repeat traffic, indicating ongoing operations.
• Devices frequently traveled along a southern route linking major cities, forming a domestic corridor that connects inland mining areas to coastal access points.
• Several locations showed repeat visits by the same devices, pointing to operational actors involved in logistics or coordination.
  
  

Laundering Nodes: Casinos, Gold Shops & Transit Points

• Gold shops and Foreign-owned casinos in Akropong and Tema emerged as key touchpoints for device movement. These locations often connected devices observed at mine sites with areas near ports or airports.
• Overlaps in device presence suggest that these establishments may act as handoff or laundering points, moving gold into financial systems or physical export.
  
  

International Exposure

• Devices linked to Ghana’s internal gold supply chain were later seen in Asia (e.g., Guangzhou, Hong Kong), the UAE, India, South Africa, and neighboring countries like Burkina Faso.
• These movements occurred shortly after visits to mining and processing sites, indicating that Ghana’s illegal gold flows are not just local, they are global.
  
  

From Intelligence to Impact

The results of this investigation were delivered via AKTEK iO as a structured intelligence environment, allowing stakeholders to interact with movement data, prioritize investigations, and surface new leads.

Our team helped identify:

• A supply chain map connecting high-risk extraction, laundering, and export locations
• A list of anonymous devices and transit patterns warranting closer monitoring
• Cross-border travel links that reveal likely smuggling and financial corridors
• Recommendations for enforcement targeting, policy reform, and ongoing monitoring

What started as a dataset became an intelligence asset, with clear implications for law enforcement, anti-corruption teams, and policy actors.

How AKTEK Supports the Mission

At AKTEK, we help organizations uncover and act on hidden supply chain risks. Through this investigation, AKTEK iS’ multidisciplinary team, skilled in tracing digital and physical behaviors across jurisdictions, led the structured research, supported by:

• AKTEK iQ AREAS stream – Delivering timely anonymized geolocation data at scale
• AKTEK iO – Structuring and visualizing patterns, connections, and movement trails

Our work helps partners turn complex movement patterns into actionable insight so that they can disrupt illicit economies at the structural level.

Learn how AKTEK can support your investigations or enforcement strategy!