Abstract:
Mining operations are a necessity to the economic growth of the country as they bring
about changes and deal with the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and
inequality. Host communities and the country get employment opportunities,
infrastructure development, contribution towards the GDP of the country, better
education, investment, and better life for host communities. However, mining operations
takes place in areas inhibited by the people and in the process, even though there’s
policies and legislations for mining operations, people tend to suffer from resettlement
and the negative effects that the mine has on local people. The negative effects include
house damages caused by mine blasting, health issues caused by pollution, inadequate
infrastructure development, underground water pollution etc. Thus, the study argues that
mining operations affects the resettled and host communities more negatively than they
do positively, and mining operations prioritises profit more than the protection of
community development of the host communities and other benefits. The study thus has
the findings that mining operations have more negative effects than positive, and the
development of host communities is not prioritised. The study therefore recommend that
there must be meaningful and extensive public participation of the host communities in
the development of Social and Labour Plans (SLPs) and the entire mining process,
including their basic needs and problems be prioritised. This study adopted the
interpretivist paradigm as it is based on exploring social reality, understanding of human
behaviour and will contribute to finding solutions to a social problem through reasoning
and observation. This study also adopted mixed method research using a descriptive
enquiry in order to produce better results and obtain a deeper understanding of the effects
of mining operations on the development of host communities
