Accra, Sept. 2, GNA - Government on Tuesday said no licence has been issued to any mining firm to mine from any of the forest reserves. Addressing the Meet-The-Press series in Accra, Mrs Cecilia Bannerman, Minister of Mines, confirmed that five companies had applied for licence to mine from the reserves.
But, she said, the Ministry was awaiting details from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
"Currently the Environmental Protection Agency is conducting an environmental impact assessment of the five areas that have been identified for the purpose," she said.
"When all these due diligence activities are carried out, government will be in a better position to grant the appropriate licences."
She said the locations were in the Central, Eastern, Ashanti and Western Regions.
The companies that have applied for the mining licences in the forest reserves are Ashanti Goldfields Company, Redbuck Mining Company, Satellite Goldfields Limited, Birim Goldfields and Newmont. She described the listed companies as "credible" since they had a track record of observing environmental procedures and had the means to ensure that the right thing was done.
Mrs Bannerman explained that some of the areas being considered as forest reserves were so only on paper since they had been degraded extensively by the activities of illegal miners known as "Galamsey Operators".
She said if the said areas, though considered as forest reserves, had been destroyed by the activities of "Galamsey Operators", there may not be ample justification to still hold on to them as such. Commenting on the broad outline of plans for illegal miners, Mrs Bannerman said government had adopted a policy to support them within a legal framework.
"Hence there is a concerted effort to license small-scale miners and encourage them to form cooperatives. This will enable them to be regulated and be given both technical and financial support to operate in a safe and environmentally sustainable manner and make a good living."
Mrs Bannerman said the Minerals Commission had set up a small-scale mining unit to develop the sector.
She expressed concern about the large number of illegal small-scale operators, who refused to register, yet whose activities led to serious environmental degradation, mercury pollution and other health hazards. The Minister said government had sought the assistance of the French Government, through UNIDO, to evaluate the level of exposure of mercury in small-scale gold mining communities.
On the issue of legal land for legal small-scale miners, Mrs Bannerman said the Minerals Commission would soon come out with a programme to carry out exploration or use of secondary information generated by large-scale operators to enable it to demarcate areas that could be reserved for small-scale mining.
She said 65 hectares of forests degraded from gold mining in the Nueng North Forest Reserve, near Tarkwa in the Western Region, 95 hectares from sand winning in the green belt area in the Greater Accra Region and 45 hectares degraded through diamond mining at Bawdua in the Eastern Region had been reclaimed. 02 Sept. 2003
