Former President and the 2024 Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has stated that no Minister or appointee in his government- when voted into power- will have the free will to engage in any form of mining.
According to him, appointees who may seek to go into mining will have to do so on condition that they resign.
“Under my government, all appointees will be prohibited from engaging in legal or illegal mining. If you want to mine, go and mine. You can’t serve in government and mine at the same time,” he said during an engagement dubbed “worship with the clergy” in Accra on October 1, 2024.
In his address, he laid his cards for the fight against the chronic illegal mining activities, popularly known as galamsey on the table.
As part of the proposed policy, he said all small-scale mining concessions would be audited and regulated to safeguard the environment.
“We will audit all mining concessions that have been issued and identify all beneficial owners of such concessions. The concession owners will be held responsible for any illegal mining that takes place within their concession area. If illegal mining or Galamsey takes place on your concession, that means your concession will be taken away from you. We will promote responsible mining and wage a war against illegal mining.”
This measure, he indicated, would be complemented with an “aggressive programme” to reclaim water bodies, degraded lands and our devastated forest reserves.
“In this endeavour, we shall ban the granting of new mining leases and activities in our great reserves and we shall amend the minerals and mining law to put stiffer punishment on people who mine in water bodies.”
Additionally, he said small-scale miners and concession miners will be compelled to take skills training in modern and responsible mining methods and land reclamation while “a portion of revenues from mining by small-scale miners will be put aside for reclaiming the land after they have finished mining”.