Tarkwa Gold Mine

Tarkwa Gold Mine is a large open-cast gold operation in the Western Region of Ghana, worked on low-grade conglomeratic "reefs" of Tarkwaian type, of mid-Proterozoic age. It sits to the northwest of Tarkwa town, in Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal District, and is one of the largest gold mines in Ghana. The mine is operated by Gold Fields Ghana Limited, the Ghanaian entity incorporated in 1993 to hold the Tarkwa concession mining rights, with Gold Fields Limited as majority shareholder.

The Tarkwa Goldfield was discovered a few years before the Witwatersrand Goldfield in South Africa, and mining companies clustered between the villages of Aboso and Tamso in the late 19th century. That long history is the main reason the site appears in travel listings at all: it is a historic gold mining site dating from the 1800s, and it is documented as an active industrial mine rather than a managed visitor attraction.

This distinction matters for planning. Tarkwa is a working mine, not a tourism facility. Access is by prior arrangement only. A 2025 Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources report describes a guided tour of key facilities, including the power generation station and open-pit mining sites, arranged for an official Zambian government delegation — an institutional visit rather than a public offering. No public visitor entrance, ticketing, opening hours or accessibility provision is documented, and wheelchair access is unknown.

Practical details are correspondingly thin. The operator's contact address is given as Tarkwa Mine, P. O. Box 26, Tarkwa, Ghana, with telephone numbers listed as +233 (0) 302 770 189/90/91; these appear in a search-result excerpt rather than a verified page. Published coordinates vary between sources, placing the mine roughly 5.32°N, 2.02°W and 5.3184°N, 2.0136°W. Touring Ghana notes the Western Region mines "may be visited, by prior arrangement," and describes the site as about 92 km northwest of Takoradi.

The mine also has a documented environmental record, including a 2001 tailings dam rupture that spilled mine waste water into the Asuman River. Visitors should treat any potential access as an arranged, working-site matter rather than a drop-in attraction.