$200M Proposed for New Mining Policy

Government will today, announce a new policy framework for regularizing and reforming mining activities in Ghana.

In preparation towards lifting of the ban on artisanal and small-scale mining operations, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has set out to begin a Multi-Sectoral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP) as its flagship project.

According to a former Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission, Benjamin Nii Ayi Aryee the new project will demand a whopping $200 million to successfully roll out.

“Under the MMIP which is supposed to be a five year project, we are expecting that as much as 200million dollars will flow into the project.

“As I speak now, we have the backing of the World Bank which came in because they realise the objectives we are setting for ourselves was aligned to what they would want small scale-mining to be,” Mr. Aryee said on Accra based Starr FM, yesterday.

The mining expert revealed the World Bank has made a commitment of $50 million out of which $20 million will be a grant.

“The process is far advance for them to give us an advance of $3 million to start some initial processes,” he said.

When asked where the rest of the funding will be pooled from, Mr. Aryee said government is making a “commitment of $20 to $40 million.”

He said, “Government has procured a number of robust vehicles, a number of drones have already been procures for the monitoring, Ghana has also sponsored the training of 200 mining guards and the intension is to train as much as 600.

The trained guards are expected to begin work days after the announcement of the new policy.

The mining guards will be tasked to ensure enforcement of mining regulations in the country.

MMIP

MMIP will help regulate and assist Artisanal and Small-scale Miners (ASMs) to improve efficiency of their operations.

It will also ensure the use of appropriate, safe and affordable technology in small-scale mining; develop alternative livelihood projects in mining communities and train miners on sustainable mining practices and extraction processes.

The Fight

Many had speculated the ban would be lifted before the close of the year since many initiatives has already being rolled out to combat illegal mining.

But the former Minerals Commission boss said the fight was not as easy as it looked.

“It is more complex than we have assumed. The problem is a national problem but can only have a local solution…. Local authorities and assemblies should be made responsible for fighting illegal mining and managing small-scale mining activities in their areas,” he advised.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]