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Nearly 120 years after three men called Joseph laid eyes on the gold fields of the Ashanti kingdom, Ghana’s rich seams are once more an alluring prospect for the world’s mining houses.

As many mines elsewhere grow deep, dangerous and expensive, Ghanaian production increased by 10 per cent last year, more than any other of the top 10 producer countries, many of which registered steep declines, according to GFMS, a consultancy.

Following the three Josephs – two merchants and an accountant from whom began the first commercial exploitation of the area – explorers are combing the soil with renewed interest. After a dip to 2m ounces in the middle of the decade, production last year reached 2.8m ounces.

Investors’ scurry for safety has pushed the gold price to all-time highs above $1,100 an ounce, sending mining companies, small-scale artisans and illicit gold-diggers scrambling for drills and picks.

Small exploration companies are raising millions from investors; the government is studying the results of a survey of the third of Ghana that has never been fully prospected.

Newmont of the US and South Africa’s Anglogold Ashanti, respectively the world’s second and third biggest gold companies, are aiming to increase their production in Ghana by a combined 1m ounces over the coming years.

“The group realises that, in terms of long-term strategy, this is the place to focus on,” says Kwame Addo-Kufuor, head of corporate affairs in Ghana for Anglogold, which merged with Ashanti Goldfields in 2004.

He adds that Obuasi, the company’s flagship Ghanaian mine, is slated to last until 2040, “well after the South African mines have tailed off”. Anglogold aims to produce 1m ounces a year in Ghana within five years, up from 557,000 ounces last year.

It is lavishing 14 per cent of group capital expenditure on Obuasi and its sister mine and, Mr Addo-Kufuor says, would consider acquisitions.

Compared with South African shafts that delve 4km into the earth, some Ghanaian mines still evoke the assessment of the 19th-century explorer who enthused that “you could pick up gold as you would potatoes”.

But Obuasi began life when the three Josephs secured concessions in 1890 and the cost of mining it now stands at $633 an ounce. Other established mines are being forced beneath ground too. Further north, in a previously unexploited area, Newmont has built a $700m mine. Completed in 2007, Ahafo is already approaching Anglogold’s entire Ghanaian production. If a licence is approved, Newmont hopes to begin a second mine of the same size by 2014. An open-pit operation, Ahafo’s 520,000 yearly ounces last year – one-tenth of Newmont’s global haul – cost $408 each to extract.

Yet a recent cyanide spill that polluted rivers around Ahafo, following a similar incident that saw Obuasi shut down for 12 days in 2007, has added to questions about the role of the mining industry.

They may not compare with the wars British armies fought to subdue the Ashanti kings, whose solid-gold throne symbolised the soul of the nation. But as a new commodity rush dawns – crude oil this time – Ghanaians are again asking whether they receive their rightful share of the spoils. Between 1994 and last year, mining attracted $6.7bn in investment, according to the Minerals Commission.

Last year the seven producing miners paid $146m to the state in royalties, taxes and dividends, or nearly 7 per cent of $2.1bn revenues, according to the Chamber of Mines. Half of the earnings – 45 per cent of exports – never passed through Ghana.

The companies point to the thousands they employ and the tens of thousands who depend on them, as well as projects to assist the thousands more who are displaced by mines.

But Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, a veteran activist, says compensation paid to the displaced “massively undervalues” their land and future livelihood. An investigation by the official Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice last year found “evidence of widespread violations of human rights of individual members of communities and communities’ collective rights in some mining areas in the country”.

The World Bank, which has helped to finance mining projects, concluded in a 2003 assessment that “it is unclear what [mining’s] true net benefits are to Ghana”. The report cited the high levels of imports and low corporate tax due to investment incentives. It described both net foreign exchange earnings for Ghana and employment opportunities as “modest”.

The new government appears keen to secure a greater share of income. Kwabena Duffuor, finance minister, said in last month’s budget that the government would raise minimum royalties to 6 per cent. He faces a fight, however: at least two large miners have “stabilisation agreements” capping royalties at 3 per cent.

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