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We used a systematic review to investigate research methods and participants in studies on the socio-economic impacts of mining in Africa. We identified 170 peer-reviewed articles published from 1980 to 2023 from research conducted in 32 African countries. Common data collection methods were interviews, focus group discussions, surveys, and participant observation. Uncommon methods included oral and life history. Research participants included community members and leaders, government officials, and miners. Uncommon participants included persons with disability, displaced persons, and foreign nationals. Indigenous people were missing from the participants listed in the 170 articles we reviewed. We note researchers have done a good job of accessing artisanal miners and women and giving them a voice. However, there is a need to increase the participation of people from vulnerable groups such as refugees, internally displaced persons, and seniors. Researchers need to include participants from non-researched groups such as Indigenous people. We conclude by proposing these groups of people be included in future research along with the increased application of unused or rarely used methods to ensure that impacted groups in mining host communities contribute to identifying and resolving socio-economic impacts of mining and contribute to Africa meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Since the 1980s, many regions in Africa that are rich in mineral resources have undertaken significant reforms to attract foreign investments. While the reforms have broadly boosted mineral production and spurred economic growth, there is a general feeling among stakeholders in the mining sector that such investments have not lived up to their rhetorical promise of improving human well-being. In Ghana, such concerns are particularly pronounced in localities that host mining activities. In such areas, mining can have a series of sustainability impacts that affect manifold the local environment and the local communities. However, there is very little effort to systematically assess the local impacts of mining in Ghana and Africa in general. Our study develops a composite sustainability index that can provide a holistic assessment of the local sustainability impacts of mining. We apply this index to understand the sustainability of three communities surrounding the gold mine of the Newmont Ghana Gold Ltd., in the Ahafo South District of Brong Ahafo region. We combine indicators that represent the key local environmental, social, economic, and institutional impacts of mining to assess local sustainability during the active stages of mine development and operation. We use a series of different methodologies and participatory techniques to arrive at the different indicators, as well as to rate them. Results suggest that despite some between-community similarities for some environmental impacts, the local communities often had radically different scores for social, economic, and institutional aspects of sustainability. Based on the findings, we argue that restoration efforts need to be customized to reflect the between-community variation and go beyond simple landscape reclamation to include interventions that improve human well-being, secure infrastructure, and enhance the collaboration among stakeholders to enable the affected local communities’ transition to sustainability.