Political Risk Analyst and Economist, Dr. Theo Acheampong, has sounded the alarm over the scale of illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey in Ghana, warning that the country faces a worsening crisis if bold and radical measures are not taken.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, September 20, he revealed that the vast majority of small-scale mining operations are unregulated.
“70% of all small-scale mining activities are not licensed, and even amongst those that are licensed, we are not even too sure of the mining practices that they are using, and that is further adding to or compounding the scale of the problem,” he cautioned.
According to him, the issue has persisted for years due to weak regulatory oversight and poor enforcement.
“So we begin to see quite clearly that we have a major problem on our hands, and this is not something just today,” he noted.
Dr. Acheampong insisted that drastic action is now required, saying, “We need to do something different; we need to do something we may call radical.”
However, he rejected suggestions that declaring a state of emergency is the right solution, pointing to the failures of previous militarised interventions.
“Where I sort of disagree a little bit is in terms of the state of emergency because we have had similar interventions in the past. Others talk about Operation Vanguard and Operation Halt; we had these militarised sweeps into different mining enclaves and different mining sites.
“But as soon as the troops leave, as soon as the security forces leave, you then have the miners and the people going back to engage in the same sort of operation,” he explained.
“So I think fundamentally, if you impose a state of emergency, that is just going to be a short-term solution. It doesn’t fundamentally address what I call the supply-side issue that is actually driving the menace. Because again, we have done a number of these interventions, and it has not really worked,” he added.
Proposing a more sustainable path, Dr. Acheampong called for urgent reforms in Ghana’s mining laws, starting with the repeal of legislative instrument 2462.
“The first thing, for me, is let’s repeal that L.I. 2462. That is part of the problem. The L.I. that gives the government, and to that extent the Minerals Commission and other bodies, the authority to license in forest reserves. That is unconditional,” he stated.
He further reminded the government of earlier promises made to deal with the issue.
“When the NDC was campaigning in opposition, they made statements to the effect that when they come into power, they would repeal that. It’s nine months down the line, and we need to see some actions related to that,” he added.