Over the last fifteen years many African countries have experienced a "mining take-off". Mining activities have bifurcated into two sectors: large-scale, capital-intensive production generating the bulk of the exported minerals, and small-scale, labour-intensive artisanal mining, which, at...

The effect of extractive activity on economic growth and development is a long debated issue in economics literature. While most of the existing literature focuses on the macroeconomic impacts of natural resource abundance, there is a rather limited but growing strand of literature that studies...

Phytoremediation uses green plants for in-situ removal, degradation, and containment of contaminants in soils, surface waters and groundwaters. However, little research has been conducted on the phytoremediation potential of plant species in removing heavy metals in the contaminated soils within...