The Compliance Trap: How Global Mineral Governance Fails Exporter States

Zhou, Jingxi

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/133328 Copy

Description

Title

The Compliance Trap: How Global Mineral Governance Fails Exporter States

Author(s)

Zhou, Jingxi

Issue Date

2026-04-14

Keyword(s)

• mineral governance
• artisanal and small-scale mining
• resource curse
• extractive industries
• trade misinvoicing
• EU due diligence
• Ghana
• EITI
• compliance trap
• elite capture

Date of Ingest

2026-05-24T08:30:53-05:00

Abstract

Since 2009, the African Union introduced the Africa Mining Vision, a comprehensive framework designed to help Africa escape the resource curse, yet after more than a decade it remains largely unimplemented. In Ghana, between 2019 and 2021, $1.1 billion in gold export revenue was lost, with approximately $4 million smuggled out illegally every month. In 2022 alone, 60 tons of gold were smuggled out of the country, costing Ghana an estimated $2 billion. In 2024, Ghana exported $10.3 billion worth of gold but collected only $1.22 billion in tax revenue, retaining just 11.8% of export income, down about 5% from last year. Ghana is one of the most EITI-compliant countries in Africa, yet the money keeps disappearing. It reveals that the existing mechanisms were never designed to protect the countries producing the minerals. Transparency shows where the money goes, but does nothing to stop it. Ghana's case makes this failure visible, and the stakes go beyond Ghana. In the DRC, cobalt and other minerals critical to the green energy transition face the same broken system. If reform cannot take hold in the most compliant case, there is little reason to expect it elsewhere. This research looks at Ghana through two core variables: elite capture mechanisms and the absence of traceability standards. Ghana's government, local communities, multinational mining companies, and institutions like EITI and the EU all have a role to play. EITI and the EU Battery Regulation already exist as entry points for reform. If they are redesigned to protect exporter states rather than just satisfy buyers, Ghana can keep more of what it produces. If not, the losses will only grow.

Type of Resource

Poster

Genre of Resource

conference poster

Language

eng

Owning Collections