Diana Ayeh is a Research Associate at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig (Germany). From 2016 to 2019 she was a member of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1199 “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition” at Leipzig University where she completed her PhD on industrial gold mining in Burkina Faso. Her current research focuses on company-state-community relations in West African and German (post)mining regions.

MIASA Project:

The project 'Negotiating Mine Closure in West Africa' investigates the various afterlives of mineral extraction. Based on explorative research in Burkina Faso and Guinea (Conakry) it identifies actors, themes and places relevant for governing the transition to post-mining, and for the closure or bust phases of mineral production. The conceptual framework of 'mining temporalities' is used to address both the temporality of the mining activity itself, and of its governance in West African countries. In particular we are interested in the very moments and mechanisms through which mine closure gathers public interest and becomes a political issue (or not).