University of Ghana Mining Research Group, in collaboration with the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies, has held a biennial conference to fashion out ideas in an effort to contribute their quota in the search for long-term research informed solutions to the damaging effects of artisanal mining activities in the country.
The conference was held on the theme: ‘Engaging the Artisan Mining Industry In Ghana: Practical Ideas Towards Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecological Stability.’
Opening the conference, Director of the Centre, Dr Erasmus Owusu, said although the artisanal mining industry has been one of the major part of Ghana’s economy and has been a major source of livelihood for many, their activities had led to a significant destruction of the environment.
He observed that the shift from the use of rudimentary tools to capital intensive earth moving machines as well as an increase in the influx of migrants into the sector has led to increase in the scale of environmental degradation, making it difficult for the country to tackle.
Dr Owusu averred that it was the looming danger of activities of artisanal mining that the public rose up against illegal mining activities leading to the ban on it.
In view of this, government has commissioned a policy document, the Multilateral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP), to serve as a comprehensive strategy and guide to interventions of tackling the scourge of illegal mining.
He added that the conference was to collate ideas from industry players, especially small scale miners, to guide the Group’s research direction so as to help influence policy directions towards finding practical solutions to the problems.
Speaking to the Coordinator for Women in Small Scale Mining, Amina Tahiru, she indicated that the ban placed on small scale mining will not, in anyway, solve the problem, but will rather go against the certified operators who were working with relevant permits and certifications.
According to him, illegal mining has not stopped, revealing that whilst small scale miners with certifications continue to sit at home in respect of the ban, illegal mining activities continued, with the authorities having no clear-cut panacea to the problem.
She stated unequivocally that politicians and chiefs were mostly behind the activities of these illegal miners hence the continuous debilitating effects on the nation and the certified miners.
“Look, government’s approach to solving this issue is wrong. Nobody can be taken away from mining to get engaged in another business,” she said, and called for an effective monitoring on the activities of mining so as to save the situation.
Amina Tahiru also said placing a ban on small scale mining as a solution to illegal mining was not realistic and therefore “won’t work.”
For his part, Chairman of the Konongo Small Scale Miners Association, Eric Addai, urged government to engage small scale miners to see possible ways of assisting them to collectively fight illegal miners.
“We know those engaging in illegal mining. We are the people who can fight them. But when you set up a committee and bring people who don’t even know where these activities are going on, how do you expect to see results?” he asked.
He also seconded the idea that finding an alternative livelihood for miners would be a venture in futility since “it will be difficult to move somebody away from the mines into another business for his or her source of livelihood.”
They also took a swipe at EPA, Minerals Commission and other regulatory agencies for doing nothing but rather allegedly conniving with some of these people, especially Chinese, to engage in illegal mining.
They pointed out that small scale miners have been sitting at home for the past six months but no solution has been found yet.
“We have been paying taxes to government and if you calculate ten per cent of our returns that go to government which stopped coming because of the ban, you will see that government is losing huge revenue because of the ban. Meanwhile illegal miners continue to work without paying anything to government,” they said.
Pix: Participants at the conference