Day in and day out, are several Reports by the Media especially JoyNews, and Citi FM/Channel One, TV3, Metro TV etc that some people in Ghana were/are afraid to drink or use tap water from the Sources of Ghana Water Company due to fear of pollution from human activities including activities of small scale miners. Consequently, people are reportedly using sachet water for most domestic usages and also some people reportedly using sachet water for Agricultural activities especially for vegetable cultivation. This confirms that the current state of the unambiguous Small Scale Mining is fast becoming existential threat. Hence need for action including identifying the exact enemy or risk so as to reduce the menace associated with the enemy as Small Scale Mining to the barest minimum.
It must be noted that since 2013, Small Scale Mining and Galamasey have been topical issues on the front burner for resolutions, due to the potential existential threat being posed by the irresponsible mining activities by some operators (Citizens and their foreign accomplices) in the Small Scale Mining Industry.
So, since 2013, the Government of the Day with the usage and support of related State Agencies have been combating irresponsible mining and the associated illegal mining without the required success. Unfortunately, the actions and rhetoric of our Leaders day across all spectrums of Ghana’s social and political set ups day in and day out have rather aggravating the situation. Infact the clueless leaders now talk of preventing mining in forest reserves and Rivers or Water bodies. So are they saying that with the exception of rivers and Forest Reserves, illegal mining is accepted at other areas? Hmm what an incompetent and confused leaders otherwise they are very corrupt.
It was the World Bank as part of PAMSCAD, (that was measures made in 1989 to alleviate poverty), which helped Ghana to come out with a very clear Small Scale Mining Law (Google for Small Scale Gold Mining Law 1989 (PNDCLaw218) and read Section 21 on interpretation of Small Scale Mining, which made it very clear that it was a method of mining with no use of substantial expenditure and no use of sophisticated technology hence for livelihood or survival and not for wealth creation.
So what is required by Ghana is to go with other countries to accept Small Scale Mining as a poverty driven phenomenon so as to reset it as in the PNDC Law 218 on Small Scale Mining with clarity as in the interpretation of PNC L aw at section 21 as stated above for interested communities only. So that they are made are them to work under effective and efficient local governance system under effective monitoring by security agencies and mines inspectorate Division or Dept. of Mines, This should be done with gradual introduction of Alternative Livelihood Projects for navigation of the affected community small scale miners to sustainable and lucrative businesses. Lastly the introduction of Medium Scale Mining for Ghanaian tycoons to operate as explained below.
It is therefore very sad that since 2013, that is about 12 years ago, no concrete solutions by Ghana to bring the associated risks with Small Scale Mining activities to the Environment and Society to the barest minimum level. This may be due to either to corruption or incompetency hence, the failure or refusal by Officials of Ghana/media to understand that galamasey, a traditional method of mining and meaning gather and sell with simple tools or the hand or with no substantial expenditure and with no sophisticated technology, is the same as the global concept of the time-tested Small Scale Mining. And this was what was considered/accepted as such by the PNDC, the originators of the Small Scale Mining concept when the PNDC lifted the over 100 years ban on Small Scale Mining in 1989.
So one with a critical thinking mindset should able to conclude that our Leaders and the Media are either clueless, or corrupt or both. Our leaders need to listen to their past utterances and watch their past body languages. This paper would therefore catalogue or disclose the incompetency, dishonesty, hypocrisy in Ghana and provide the way forward.
Let me once again say that Ghana’s problem is lack of understanding or diagnosing of the underlying issues/characteristics of the Small Scale Mining to appreciate that Galamasey is the same as Small Scale Mining and has come to stay because it is a poverty driven phenomenon, so as long as poverty exit at the affected areas, it will continue to raise its ugly head. So it must be accepted as Small Scale Mining as was done by the PNDC, for us to find a way of reducing the associated menace through win-win solutions. This is necessary since the affected rural folks see the gold or salt in Bogoso or Ada Songhor Lagoon respectively as a gift from God for them to escape from their poverty miseries.
Hence, the rich persons with support with their foreign accomplices with substantial expenditure and sophisticated technology in the Small Scale Mining Sector must be navigated to a Medium Scale Mining Sector to be established by a new law.
It must be noted that Large Scale Mining Concession is not opened to only foreigners as regarded by the Ashantihene as obtained in his recent remarks that Ghana should grant Large Scale Mining Concession to Ghanaians. Unlike the Small Scale Mining Rights, the law on Large Scale Mining Right is opened to all interested investors who can meet the conditions precedent including proof of the minimum Capital, since Mining is capital intensive.
Furthermore for Large Scale Mining there is a requirement of a conduct of efficient Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and organization of a Public Forum with relevant Stakeholders especially the likely affected communities (for them to know what part they are to play, compensations, the shared benefits in order to help buy a social license). This must be done under the control of the EPA to deal with the report of the EIA. Then the affected Agencies are to be compensated. There is also the posting of huge reclamation bond in US Dollars for EPA to reclaim the likely disturbed areas in case of failure to do so or refund when EPA is happy with the reclamation by the Company.
So Medium Scale Mining, is the appropriate Sector to be created for majority of Ghanaian tycoons who want to accumulate wealth through mining to feel free to form partnerships with Foreigners with the needed Capital or with adequate equity or value to operate in a very responsible way by complying with Local and International Standards. A walk down the memory lane will reveal that our Leaders are both clueless and corrupt with their hypocrisy baggage.
Firstly, Google and read Review the laws on Small Scale Mining by Dr Tony Aubyn. A Statement by him during an Interview with Citifm in 2016. Dr Tony Aubyn, an astute Mining Scholar and one time with Goldfields Ghana, a former CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Mines and as a former CEO of the Minerals Commission hence with his rich experiences in the Mining Industry, provided the answer in 2016 to the Government of the Day in 2016, then as the CEO of the Minerals Commission, yet as at date nothing very much has been done by Parliament or the Government of the day by buying this very good recommendation by an astute mining expert par excellence. So you can tell the problem of Ghana. Looking for ways to create and loot the Country.
The Small Scale Mining Law in Minerals and Mining Act 2006 (Act 703) is Ghana’s main problem. It demo that those who enacted this law did a very bad job as observed by Dr Tony Aubyn. Note that a person with a critical thinking mindset can see or tell this, when such a person reads the permeable for Act 703, which was enacted in April 2006. The permeable of Act 703 made it clear that among others, it was meant to combine all the then existing minerals and mining laws as enacted by the regimes of the PNDC and NDC 1 under President JJ Rawlings into one Act of Parliament. So why the failure or refusal to use the interpretation of Small Scale Mining as at section 21 of PNDC law? This should baffle one.
So, the Parliament of Ghana in 2006 did a bad job because the Small Scale Mining law as in Act 703 is an ambiguous law on Small Scale Mining unlike the parent or original law as enacted by the PNDC in 1989 in recognition of galamasey as the time-tested Indigenous Mining. The PNDC law was unambiguous about Small Scale Mining since it gave a very clear interpretation of Small Scale Mining at section 21 of Small Scale Gold Mining Law 1989 (PNDC Law 218) as a method of mining with no use of substantial expenditure, no use of sophisticated equipment and reserved for only Ghanaians. Hence the PNDC law 218 was accepted by NDC1 without a change because as required by the Constitution of Ghana for the honoring of the local culture in existence.
Hence, the over 100 years old Indigenous Mining or Artisanal Small Scale Mining by our ancestors as by 1989 was formalized by the PNDC into Small Scale Mining and accepted by the PNDC only for survival and not for Wealth Creation which is aligned with global state of affairs. So the PNDC and NDC1 put up measures to formalize and regulate Small Scale Mining. Hence with time the concept of Alternative Livelihood Projects were introduced by affected Large Scale Mining Companies for Communities in their catchments areas.
Other bad laws were part of Minerals and Mining Regulation 2012 (Act 2173) and Minerals and Mining Regulations Support Services 2012 (LI2174). As well Ghana Investment Promotion Center Act 2013 (Act 845) which failed to make Small Scale Mining as no Go areas for foreigners.
These laws and regulations gave windows for Ghanaians to lure foreigners especially Chinese into the Small Scale Mining Sector. For an informed mind and or confirmation of my assertion on the need for reorientation, Google and read ‘We do not burn Wontumi’s Excavators by Hon Fuseini’. Google and read ‘How my Net worth reached 700 Million US Dollars by Keche Andrew’s wife namely, Joana Gyan’. Google and read ‘Old Photos and Videos of Self-confessed Amenfi Central PC who is in Galamasey pops up’ Google and read ‘Will Ghana ever learn? A letter to the Ghana and China Chamber of Commerce’ as published on the website of Modern Ghana on 23 July 2012 by Anna Hanson, Google and read Sweltering, Heat, Golden Dreams; Chinese Galamasey in Ghana’ as published in 2013. Google and read ‘Chinese involvement in Small Scale Mining in Ghana Professor Crawford’’.
Armed with the above details, it should be very clear to you by now that Ghana has bad laws on and related to Small Scale Mining which corrupt officials or persons are exploiting to loot the country. So there is therefore the need for our leaders to listen to their past utterances and watch their past body languages for reorientation and with critical thinking mindset, Ghana may able to resolve the problems in the Mining Sector by reviewing the Laws on and related to Small Scale Mining as suggested by Dr Tony Aubyn.
Next on walking down the memory is ‘l am putting my Presidency on the line’. A statement made in 2017 by then President Nana Addo of Ghana. So, he started very well. He established Inter Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) under the Chairmanship of Professor Frimpong Boateng, then the Minister of Environment, he declared state of emergency at affected areas with an initial banning of Small Scale Mining for about one year, whilst combating irresponsible and illegal mining with OPERATION VANGUARD, he come out with the engagement of Stakeholders through National and Regional Fora for the way forward.
He later on introduced Community Small Scale Mining, a good idea but instead of limiting it to interested affected Communities as in the PNDC law on Small Scale Mining for them to register with their District Mining Committees, membership of which included the Chief or his Rep, it was hijacked by City Dwellers, hence that aggravated the state of affairs.
The Environmental Protection Agency as in 2022, which is an Independent Statutory Executive Body created by an Act of Parliament (with seasoned experts including my friend Mr Michael Sandow Ali, who was the first Head of EPA at the Tarkwa Office in 1999), enacted the Environmental Protection Mining in Forest Reserves Regulations 2022 (LI 2462), a Regulation from the EPA as required by the 1992 Constitution to come out with a better framework to help preserve the Forest. Hence LI 2462
Hmm, the very good job of the EPA with LI 2462, was misunderstood due to ill-informed Ghanaians otherwise the state of the hypocrisy in Ghana. This may be so because it was enacted by the EPA in the Regime of President Nana Addo coupled with the usual failure of some Ghanaians to learn about the history of Ghana especially in mining and take time with critical thinking mindset to read LI 2462 and other issues before commenting. The issue of improper education on the matter by EPA, cannot also be ruled out. Otherwise, because the President of Ghana during the tour of the Government of the Day in 2024, either he was found to have no fine face or he and or some of the officials in his regime could not be trusted or both.
This writer, rather thinks that the President had/has a fine face but he and regime were not trusted. Since his Regime, seemingly talked the Walk but did not walk the talk, so value was Cos 90 or Zero. This was so due to the failure for him to act on intelligence on the alleged illegal mining activities of Hon Sir John, then a CEO of Forest Commission, as reported by Professor Frimpong Boateng. He also failed to take action when his lead person for fighting illegal mining namely Professor Frimpong Boateng openly said that some NPP persons should go and mine in the Concession of Chairman Wontumi because the NPP Party needed money. This gave the perception that some members of the IMCIM under and including Professor Frimpong Boateng were illegally granting mining concessions for illegal mining or Small Scale Mining.
Thirdly, in the walking down the memory lane, was the statement by then President Nana Addo, that Chairman Wontumi was not doing Illegal mining demo he was ill-informed, since the involvement of Chairman Wontumi in illegal mining started in 2008. When as part of Live us Let Us Live Policy, as a win-win solution which I sold to then GM of Bogoso Gold Mine, Hansol Mining Company owned by a Chinese by name Mr Su in Tema with Chairman as the MD (Google and read ‘Sweltering, Heat, Golden Dreams; Chinese Galamasey in Ghana’ as published in 2013 and Also ‘we do not burn Excavators of Chairman Wontumi’) was given 30 days window to wind up activities and vacate from the Himan Concession, near Prestea by Bogoso Gold Mine. This was, when I was the Security Superintendent of Bogoso Mine. The warning was as part of the principle of use of minimum force and Voluntary Principle of Human Rights and Security.
So due to the ineffective actions or the lukewarm attitude by the second Regime of President Nana Addo to walk the talk, a call was made by some politicians from across the spectrum/divide, Relevant CSOs, Faith Base Institutions, the Intelligentsia Community especially UTAG, Media Houses, TUC to repeal or revoke or withdraw, or cancel or invalidate LI2462.
Fourthly, in the walking down the memory lane was the statement that ‘if you are fighting the illegal miners without finding Alternative Livelihood for them is inhuman’ or not the best or words worth the same made by Presidential Candidate His Excellency Former President Mahama in his campaign for Presidential Election. Joy News on Illegal Mining refers. So Alternative Livelihood Projects for true Small Scale Miners and not tycoons or city dwellers is one of the good solutions. So let us walk the talk.
Fifthly, , in the walking down the memory lane was the Media in 2024, gave a news item that indicated that ‘if former President Mahama is elected, we will not cancel Galamasey, since Presidential Candidate Mahama when voted into power will ensure that we support you, the Galamasey Operators to do responsible mining’.
This was a statement made by our sitting Vice President, her Excellency VP Naana Opoku Agyeman, during her campaign in Wassa Amenfi Central. Google for ‘Old Photos and Videos of Self-confessed Amenfi Central PC who is in Galamasey pops up’. This was when she was there in 2024 to support Hon Joana Cudjoe, allegedly by the Internet as Amenfi Galamasey Queen or Queen of gold. Google and read ‘How my Net worth reached 700 Million US Dollars by Keche Andrew’s wife Joana Gyan’, also Google So His Excellency President Mahama should walk the talk made by her Excellency President Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman during the campaign era in 2024.
Hmm, a new regime with the second coming of President Mahama, who the public saw as a person with a fine face and had/have massive trust was ushered in as President of Ghana effective 2025. So with a sober mindset, hence with critical thinking mindset, he now saw LI2462 as a good law. So as part of face saving, he opted to amend or remove an aspect of LI2462, hence reluctant to revoke or repeal or cancel LI2462 as promised in 2024. So the Choristers have changed the stanza. This demo our DNA of PHD (Pull Him Down or is it Pull Her Down syndrome since our Chief Justice is firing at all angles, so she may soon go to AU Court and UN Court in order to secure her job or her name).
Hmm, this our PHD syndrome will one day come to haunt us (Ghanaians). This is envisioned since on Saturday 19 July 2025 during current affairs broadcast of JoyNews News file, the erudite and eloquent Presidential Spokesman or Hon Minister of Government Communication, namely Hon Felix Kwakye, displayed a sense of honesty/candor, when he said that one day Ghana may discover Uranium and or Cobalt, very critical minerals which may motivate Ghana to mine in the affected Forest reserves in a very responsible manner.
So, based on the honesty of our indefatigable Hon Minister of Government Communication, we should tread cautiously with matters on mining in Forest Reserves and consider global environmental measures for mining in Forest Reserves as enacted by the EPA. We must note that GBC and GMC are mining bauxite and manganese in the Forest Reserve respectively. Likewise Newmont and Golden Star Wassa Mine are mining gold in the Forest Reserves. So we need to put good measures before allowing mining in the Forest Reserves as required by LI 2462.
Some of the measures include making it that only reputable Large Scale Mining Company under the umbrella of the Ghana Chamber of Mines for the normal peer review should be allowed to do so. Also, with the exception of the removal of mineral ore, there should be no processing of the ore and the associated tailings facilities in the Forest Reserves. Preservation of animals etc is sin qua non.. Need for posting of reclamation bond for rehabilitation of the affected Forest Reserve at the end of mining as was done by Bogoso Mine at some areas especially Besuechim at the Prestea Concession.
Lastly, we may consider the interested Large Scale Mining Company to be made to reclaim the same size of disturbed Forest Reserve before granting access, we also need to make the Forest Reserve as a security zone under the Ministry of Defence to ensure no Small Scale Mining activities in the Forest Reserves.
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It must be noted that whether as licensed or unlicensed Small Scale Miners, history tells that the value is the same, since the operators act irrationally by prioritizing economic gains over all else as stated by Justice Amadu Tanko, during recent sensitization by the Ghana Chamber of Mine for relevant stakeholders especially the relevant State Security Agencies, Investigators, State Prosecutors, members of the Judiciary etc for effective arrests, good investigations, prosecution of mining related offenses to be appropriately disposed off by a court of competent jurisdiction (a High Court) respectively.
So, as such it will be very difficult to get Small Scale Miners to comply with International and local standards due to greed, by some Ghanaians and their foreign accomplices they will surely conduct irresponsible mining, abundant reports say so.. Hence there is no way that the Ghana Chamber of Mines will admit a Licensed Small Scale Mining Company or miner into the Chamber. But the Members of the International Chamber of Miners through empathy, see the need to collaborate with Artisanal and Small Scale Miners to get them to mine ecofriendly and societal friendly hence close to responsible mining. So the Government to liaise with Large Scale Mining Companies for the support to deal with the menace.
So, the solutions among others to help bring the associated risks to the barest minimum are a mindset revolution for reorientations , need for good laws, need for good regulations and effective monitoring and enforcement to ensure responsible mining as explained below, effective local governance to deal with the menace, creation of Jobs/Alternative Livelihood Projects, seeking the support of Large Scale Mining Companies and the International Community especially the Chinese Embassy to deal with the menace.
