Over the years, Golden Lead has faced ongoing complaints about dumping waste into local bodies of water, under-delivered on employment promises, and made secretive deals to garner favor from local government officials.¹

Local activists have repeatedly protested the plant for polluting the environment, including dumping waste into a lagoon at the nearby Bolong Fenyo Wildlife Reserve. When the lagoon turned red around 2017, scientists tested the water and detected a high level of harmful chemicals. More protests followed the publication of the study. But despite the increased scrutiny, Golden Lead executives continued to circumvent waste treatment requirements by using their connections with local government employees who tipped them off about upcoming water quality tests. “Every time they come for testing, they inform us. We remove the waste from our tanks and put fresh water in them,” said an employee who blew the whistle on the company in October 2020, according to an article in The Republic.²

On March 22, 2018, up to 150 locals gathered on the beach with shovels and dug up a long wastewater pipe that was running under a public beach, dumping the waste from the Golden Lead plant directly into the sea.³ The police made more than 10 arrests for property damage and “intimidating and annoying” the company, according to Reuters. Lamin Jassey, a teacher and environmental activist, was required to post a bail of $8,400, which is nearly 20 times the average Gambian’s per-capita income. Gambia’s environmental agency required Golden lead to reinstall the pipeline, but just over 1,000 feet out into the sea.⁴ Weeks later, the company installed the new pipe and planted a Chinese flag on the beach alongside it​.⁵

In March 2021, The Outlaw Ocean Project published an investigation in The New Yorker magazine centered on the Golden Lead plant. The report revealed that the fishmeal plant had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of the men and women in Gunjur. The odor generated by the plant drove away the waves of tourists who had once frequented the town’s seaside restaurants and hotels.⁶ Shortly after The Outlaw Ocean Project’s investigation was published, Golden Lead expanded its factory onto the land where more than two dozen women had operated a small farm for several years.⁷ Mba Amie Camara, one of the gardeners, told Bayo News Network that the women had worked there for over 30 years, and no amount of compensation from Golden Lead would cover the amount of annual income they would lose in the years to come.⁸

A Gunjur resident told the BBC that when the factory opened, company officials promised to employ 600 locals. By 2023, there were only 40 Gambian employees, each paid roughly $60 per month. One of these workers said that the company deducted money from his salary for social security, despite the fact that he did not have a social security number.⁹ In November 2022, representatives from Gambia’s National Assembly visited Golden Lead and concluded, “employees are not presented with safety gear, risking their lives. Additionally, the delegation was informed that staff are employed verbally, and no contract signed, with no job security,” according to a report by The Republic.¹⁰

Another major complaint among locals was the amount of fish diverted to the plant at the same time as many Gambians struggled to put food on the table. “The Golden Lead fishmeal factory in Gunjur alone can produce 8,000 bags of 50 kilos fishmeal per week,” wrote Famara Drammeh, a Gunjur resident in a Facebook post in March 2021.¹¹ “My heart breaks seeing other women struggling to feed their families because our government only cares about meager revenue from the Chinese.”

The Gambian government has tried to increase its policing of fishing in its waters and the fishmeal industry on land. In 2019, the government forged a partnership with Sea Shepherd Global called “Operation Gambian Coastal Defense.” Sea Shepherd provided a civilian offshore patrol vessel, the MV Age of Union, formerly Sam Simon, with a Gambian law enforcement detachment on board​. The government also began to prosecute offenders and impose penalties—though not without controversy. Under Gambian law, illegal fishing carries a minimum fine of five million Gambian dalasis, about $100,000, per vessel​. Some officials in government and representatives in the fishing and fishmeal industry said the penalties were unfairly and impractically high. In late 2020, Fisheries Minister James Gomez and then Permanent Secretary Bamba Banja suggested the five million Gambian dalasis minimum “does not make sense,” preferring to offer out-of-court settlements to offenders.​ When six trawlers were intercepted in November 2020, the ministry sent letters asking if the owners wished to settle the cases out of court​. Many suspect such leniency stems from the influence of powerful fishing companies. This was starkly illustrated by a bribery scandal involving Mr. Banja, who was charged in 2021 with soliciting a bribe from the Chinese operator, Golden Lead, to free an illegal fishing vessel​.

In November 2022, Bamba Banja was found guilty of corruption. He had accepted at least five payments of $1,600 from Golden Lead between 2018 and 2020, according to Malagen, an investigative journalism outlet in Gambia. A whistleblower who worked as a translator for Golden Lead provided prosecutors with a recording of a phone call between Banja and Golden Lead executives discussing a payment of 100,000 Gambian dalasis, or approximately $1,300. “Corruption has eaten so deep into our fabrics that it has now become a cankerworm,” the judge said during Banja’s case.¹² He sentenced Banja to two years in jail and ordered him to pay a fine, but Banja was later pardoned by President Adama Barrow in 2024, according to The Point newspaper.¹³

Golden Lead did not respond to a request for comment.¹⁴