Minerals Commission underlines four root causes of galamsey

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Minerals Commission, Martin Ayisi, has identified what he believes are the root causes of illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

According to him, dealing with these root causes is essential to effectively tackling illegal mining in the country.

He was speaking on Joy News’ Newsfile, monitored by GhanaWeb.

To him, the biggest cause of illegal mining is finding a suitable place for miners who want to do small-scale mining.

He explained that these miners use a ‘try-your-luck’ method to find a suitable place to mine, thereby disrupting river bodies, forest reserves, etc unlike large scale miners who spend years exploring before they mine.

“One of the biggest drivers of galamsey is getting a place for the miners to work. That is a very fundamental issue, getting a place for them to work. You see, the large-scale people, what they do is, look for an area, apply, spend time to do exploration that could be anything between 7-15 years, they find the resources, they apply for a licence and start mining. In small-scale mining, there is nothing like prospecting. So, it is difficult to get a place for them. What they do is try your luck. So they just get up and dig anywhere. If they happen to hit, they call it a V, and then you see them congregating if they are lucky and the place is free, they approach us with a licence for them” he said.

Again, the CEO continued that the current licensing regime also contributes to the growing trend of galamsey; adding that the longer it takes to get a licence, the more people opt to mine illegally.

“The second one is the licensing regime; maybe that was what Prof. [Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng] touched on a little bit in his report. If it's going to take a small-scale miner 2-3 years to get a license, he could as well go and start. Once he puts in the application and doesn't get the licence on time, what he quickly does is that he fears people around could come and overrun the place so he could as well go and start,” he continued.

The monetary gains from illegal mining, he added, are the next cause of illegal mining that needs to be looked at.

“It is like the drug trade, too much money. And for some people, no matter that you do, they will go there. So people see it as quick money, they go there to make something. At 12 midnight, they go to the water bodies. So the kind of rents and the money involved is also what is driving that,” he noted.

Additionally, he noted that the complicity of everyone is the overarching cause of illegal mining. To him, the sanctions against illegal mining in the country are punitive, yet they are not allowed to punish those found culpable.

“The sanctions and penalties are very punitive, what we should be seeing is that they should be biting. So, persons who are arrested are well publicised and are put in jail, the so called influential people, some chiefs and some political actors etc., are arrested and put in jail and are shown to the public, then you are sending a strong signal to everybody that you can go to jail,” he added.

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