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At one point an estimated 50,000 foreign workers were operating unlawfully in Ghana.
The government of Ghana is getting close to pass a new Minerals and Mining Act that seeks to fully regulate the sector could help to effectively deal with illegal mining in the country.
The revised law, GhanaWeb reports, will empower courts to confiscate equipment seized from illicit miners. Currently the state has not been able to hold on to them because existing regulations don’t support that.
MINING.com has kept a close eye on illegal gold mining in Ghana, Africa’s second-largest producer of the precious metal. At its peak, an estimated 50,000 foreign workers, mainly Chinese, were operating unlawfully in the country. This prompted the government to create a taskforce in May last year to tackle the subject, and so avoid tension-generating issues, such as the massive deportation of almost two hundred of Chinese nationals last year.
But illicit operations continue to be a major problem in the Ashanti and Eastern regions of the country. According to Ghana News Agency (GNA) indiscriminate digging of deep trenches in frantic search for gold ore has wrecked most roads in the area. This has made especially difficult for health professionals to reach those communities.
Image: Aljazeera’s documentary screen grab.
Comments
MBstainoslav
Illegal mining in Ghana is not only destroying infrastructure but it is destroying the environment and the health of many. The term small scale mining is used readily when discussing these illegal (Galamsay) activities, but the scale is far from small. It is a wide reaching destructive practice, that has far reaching impacts downstream of the operations.
Rivers have become heavily polluted and siltation is now a major issue, hindering the potential for development of renewable energy sources such as run-of-river hydro schemes as well making water extremely dangerous for communities that use it for bathing and drinking.
This law may be a step in the right direction, but it’s implementation will be critical. The government will be cautious as the wealth generated by illegal mining is seen by many voters as key to their communities survival in what is a worsening economic state of affairs in the country.