In this chapter, we set the stage for the book by outlining the empirical context and main problems of the ASGM sector in Ghana. We show that the alarming galamsey menace, which, by 2017, triggered widespread public outrage, particularly from the media and civil society organizations (CSOs), was the direct result of the dramatic transformation of the country’s ASGM industry over a long period of time. This was a revolutionary change that saw ASGM evolve from a relatively rudimentary and environmentally friendly mining activity to a semi-industrialized mining enterprise. We conceptualize the earlier form as traditional artisanal small-scale mining (TAM) and the newer form as capitalist medium-scale mining (CMM). The chapter contends that TAM is the time-honoured livelihood activity of the rural people of Ghana, the subaltern classes; while CMM is operated by the power elites in the country to accumulate ill-gotten wealth. We argue further that the mechanisms through which the industry has transformed from a relatively sustainable and ecologically friendly livelihoods strategy of the subaltern classes to a capitalist and money-making enterprise is what has wreaked irreversible ecological damage to the Ghanaian environmental landscape. Two related factors have been identified to account for the evolution of TAM to CMM: first (and in the context of the hikes in demand and gold prices in the global economy) is the onrush of the capitalist classes into ASGM and second, (and flowing from the first) the use of sophisticated heavy mining equipment. Though distinct in the technology used and logic driving them, TAM and CMM are often lumped together as ASGM, while the illegal and criminal components are lumped together as galamsey. In terms of defining attributes, TAM is marked out from CMM by three main characteristics: its operators use rudimentary mining tools, it is labour-intensive, and it is driven by the imperatives of basic needs and alternative livelihoods. In contrast, CMM is undertaken by the capitalist classes with heavy mining equipment, acquisition of huge tracks of land as mining concessions, and hiring workers to work on their mining concessions with the core motive to accumulate wealth. We establish that, intrinsic to the evolution from TAM to CMM has been the dispossession of land from subaltern classes and the destruction of their basic livelihood sources. Additionally, the transition has led to deleterious ecological and socioeconomic effects, although of varying magnitude relative to the type, methods, scale, and technology used in mining and processing the mineral mined, in this case, gold. Even though the negative environmental effects of ASGM are not new, they have worsened in the last two decades, in correlation with the transition from TAM to CMM.