Eric Stemn | University of Mines & Technology, Tarkwa (original) (raw)

Papers by Eric Stemn

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Ghana Mining Journal, 2020

In recent times there have been lots of public outcry on the environmental and public health and ... more In recent times there have been lots of public outcry on the environmental and public health and safety effects of Artisanal and Small-scale gold Mining (ASM) and the need to monitor ASM activities for reclamation purposes. To effectively develop and deploy policy responses to the environmental and human health effects of ASM, knowledge of the locations and distribution of ASM sites is a prerequisite. However, information regarding ASM hotspots and spatial distribution, the scope and types of ASM operations are hard to find. Therefore, this research was designed to use satellite-based data to map out ASM sites, focusing on the Tarkwa-Nsuaem municipality as the study area. Several image processing techniques were applied on a Landsat 8 satellite image downloaded from the US Geological Survey website. The image processing resulted in the identification of 221 clusters of ASM sites, representing 12.72% of the total size of the study area. To further explore the effects of these ASM sit...

Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration

Ghana Mining Journal, 2015

Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Ghana, accounting for over three milli... more Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Ghana, accounting for over three million cases and thousands of deaths annually. The risks of morbidity and mortality associated with malaria are characterized by spatial and temporal variation across the country. This research sought to use GIS and multi-criteria decision analysis to produce a predictive model of malaria using eight risk factors ranging from environmental to anthropogenic. Each of the risk factors was classified into three classes of malaria risk according to how it impacts malaria prevalence. The classified risk factors were finally overlaid through the use of weighted overlay after weights were determined from them using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Results indicate that high risk areas are concentrated at the central as well as the west-southern parts of the country consisting mainly of the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Central and the Western Regions. No area was classified as low risk while...

Safety Science, 2020

The literature on learning from incidents indicates that there is more focus on the initial stage... more The literature on learning from incidents indicates that there is more focus on the initial stage of incident analysis to identify causes and less focus on the latter stages associated with implementing improvements. To improve safety, it is important to develop and implement remedial measures that better address the causes and consequences of incidents. This study focused on the planning and implementation of remedial measures after incident analysis. Thirty-five safety professionals involved in developing and implementing remedial measures from incident investigations at four large-scale gold mines in Ghana were interviewed using the critical incident technique. The nature of past remedial measures was studied, as well as understanding the current process of planning and implementing remedial measures. Results showed that remedial measures most frequently targeted human behaviour, and the majority of recommendations were focused at the lowest levels of the organisation. Moreover, ...

Governments all over the world especially in developing countries continue to emphasise poverty a... more Governments all over the world especially in developing countries continue to emphasise poverty alleviation and eradication as their overarching goals. A number of international organisations also recognise the need for the reduction of poverty incidence within the next decade, making poverty reduction one of the greatest concerns worldwide. During the past three decades, the government of Ghana has developed and subsequently implemented several development policy frameworks as part of its poverty reduction programmes. One of the parameters that play a key role in reduction and alleviation of poverty is statistics on poverty. However, in many developing countries such as Ghana such statistics do not exist, making poverty alleviation intervention a bit scattered and untargeted. Due to this, there exists a major problem of reaching the poor to address their specific needs. In response to this challenge, there is the need to produce poverty map to assist policy makers. This research th...

The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis of Ghana has been experiencing fast urban growth over the past tw... more The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis of Ghana has been experiencing fast urban growth over the past two decade. This urban growth has resulted in changes in the surface cover which consequently has cause remarkable urban thermal environmental problems. This research used two multi-temporal Landsat Thematic (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images of the years 1991 and 2008 respectively to evaluate the effect of urban growth on land surface temperature (LST) using an integrated remote sensing and GIS approach. Several remote sensing techniques were used to carry out urban growth analysis. This assisted in determining the changes that have taken place over the 17 year period. The integrated use of remote sensing and GIS was subsequently employed to analyse the effect of urban growth on surface temperature. Local climate change was also studied using multi-decade temperature data. The results showed that urban development had increased surface radiant temperature in the study ar...

A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Environmental Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Scienc... more A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Environmental Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Master Of Science Degree in Environmental Science, January-2013

Ghana Mining Journal

In an attempt to incorporate human factors into technical failures as accident causal factors, re... more In an attempt to incorporate human factors into technical failures as accident causal factors, researchers have promoted the concept of human factor analysis. Human factor analysis models seek to identify latent conditions within the system that influence the operator’s action to trigger an accident. For an effective application of human factor analysis models, a domain-specific model is recommended. Most existing models are developed with category/subcategory peculiar to a particular domain. This presents challenges and hinders effective application outside the domain developed for. This paper sought to propose a human factor analysis framework for Ghana’s mining industry. A comparative study was carried out between three dominated accident causation models and investigation methods in literature; AcciMap, HFACS, and STAMP. The comparative assessment showed that HFACS is suitable for incident data analysis based on the following reason; ease of learning and use, suitability for mu...

Safety

Background: This research sought to understand the perspective of mineworkers regarding incident ... more Background: This research sought to understand the perspective of mineworkers regarding incident investigations, with the objective of identifying incident investigations improvement opportunities. First, through interviews, the research sought to identify the causal factors considered during investigations and the reasons for conducting investigations in the Ghanaian mining industry. Secondly, through questionnaire surveys, the study focused on understanding the extent to which a large sample of mineworkers considered the identified causal factors and investigation reasons relevant and applicable in their mine. Method: Data were collected from 41 participants through interviews and 659 respondents through surveys, and the data were analyzed through thematic, content, and statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and correlation analysis. Result: The interviews led to the identification of five and nine categories of incident causal factors and reasons f...

Resources Policy

Due to poor technology and lack of proper skills in mineral processing techniques, a greater perc... more Due to poor technology and lack of proper skills in mineral processing techniques, a greater percentage (about 70%) of gold is lost to the tailings stream in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). These tailings, in the last decade, have become a major source of revenue for some large-scale mining (LSM) companies in Ghana because they have advanced technologies to optimize recovery. This paper examines the tailings trade between ASGM and LSM companies in Ghana and determines their associated relationships. It also informs policy decisions regarding gold mining in Ghana. Field visits were made to licensed ASGM sites in the Tarkwa Mining District where the trade is mostly practiced to obtain first-hand information and conduct interviews with diggers. Results indicate that both ASGM operators and LSM companies derive revenue from the tailings trade, exhibiting a relationship that could be described as mutualistic. Based on the tailings price determination, the symbiotic relationship is described as parasitic because the tailings pricing process is largely controlled by the LSM companies to the detriment of the ASGM operators. As a result of the environmental dangers posed by the tailings trade, the interdependency could equally be described as parasitic since both the ASGM operators and the LSM companies benefit to the detriment of the natural ecosystem. It was also observed that while some stakeholders attempt to criminalize the tailings trade, there is presently no law or regulation that prohibits such trade in the Ghanaian mining industry.

Science of The Total Environment

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Modeling Earth Systems and Environment