Price of Gold – Ghana

These boys and men are all enslaved in illegal gold mining in Ghana. Most come from northern Ghana hoping to strikt it rich working at legal mines. When they can’t get a job, they borrow money at usurious interest rates or join teams of slaves known as gangs. The gangs work in areas abandoned by big companies. They can only sell their gold to the moneylender at a price he sets. They are trapped by illegal, fictitious debt, and are often hunted by local police and private security guards for trespassing. Many of them talk about wanting to escape. Some of them believe they will become rich if they work just a little longer and harder.