Ghanaian unions have called off a strike after the government promised to take measures to clean up Africa’s biggest gold producer’s small-scale mining sector.

At an unlicensed gold mine in Ghana, men in t-shirts, shorts and rubber boots wade through pools of muddy water laced with mercury, pull out rocks with bare hands and operate a rickety sluice as they search for the precious ore.

Ghana has a gold problem: illegal mines, known as 'galamsey', where men work without proper protective equipment. It threatens their lives – and the environment.

At the expense of workers’ health, increased crime and adverse environmental effects, the heightened price of gold stimulates Ghanaian black market mining industry