Chamber of Mines pushes for streamlined operations of small scale miners

To ensure all stakeholders most importantly the State derive the maximum benefits from gold exports, the Ghana Chamber of Mines is entreating government to initiate effective mechanisms to streamline activities and operations of artisanal and small scale mining operators.

This has become necessary in the sense that though Ghana overtook South Africa as the largest gold producer in Africa this year, however, nearly half of the production was from informal artisanal and small scale mining as well as foreign dominated trans-shipment.

What this implies is that the State potentially lost nearly half of the revenue it could have obtained from the gold sub-sector. The Chamber insists that whereas this may have created informal jobs, on the other hand, it has also contributed to environmental degradation, and hence the need to streamline the operations of small scale miners.

The quantum of gold produced in Ghana from both large-scale and small-scale producers increased by 12 percent last year, from 4.287 million ounces in 2017 to 4.795 million ounces in 2018.

But while gold production from the large-scale mining sector declined marginally from 2.808 million ounces in 2017 to 2.807 million ounces in 2018, the quantum of locally sourced gold assayed by the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), on behalf of the Licensed Gold Exporting Companies (LGECs) – which effectively are the licensed small scale producers – rather saw a significant increase as it recorded 1.987 million ounces in 2018 up from 1.479 million ounces in 2017.

Speaking at the 5th Ghana Mining Industrial Awards held in Accra last Friday, President of the Chamber, Eric Asubonteng said with recent investment in the mining sector, it was a clear indication that Ghana has the potential to attract further investment into responsible mining.

“It is our hope that government will roll-out the Multilateral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP) to allow a broad-based approach to sustainable job creation in the mining industries”, he reiterated.

Awards

The 5th Ghana Mining Industry Awards (GMIA) saw Asanko Gold Ghana Ltd crowned as the Mining Company of the Year for 2019, beating stiff competition from Goldfields Ghana, Newmont Goldcorp, among others.

Organized on the theme: Honouring Commitment to Excellent to Ghana’s Mining Industries, the awards are meant to ensure that individuals and organisations who have distinguished themselves diligently in the mining sector receive the deserved recognition for their contributions to national development.