Co-Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), Dr Steve Manteaw, has said remarks by the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, should not be interpreted as an endorsement of illegal mining. Speaking on News Lens on Monday, Dr Manteaw, said Gyamfi was advocating a simpler licensing process to help unlicensed miners formalise their operations and bring them under regulatory oversight.
Dr Manteaw explained that difficulties and bureaucratic hurdles associated with obtaining mining licences have discouraged many miners from regularising their activities over the years. “Those who follow the mining sector closely will tell you that one of the reasons … the galamseyers are unwilling to formalise their activities is because of difficulties associated with the procurement of mining licences,” he said.
He noted that when the licensing process becomes too difficult, some miners choose to operate without authorisation rather than pursue registration.
Dr Manteaw argued that making licences easier to obtain would help bring such operators into a formal system, allowing regulators to identify them and better monitor their activities. According to Dr Manteaw, the government’s objective is to expand the regulated small-scale mining sector through formalisation, rather than encourage illegal mining. “So what GoldBod is proposing is to simplify the licence acquisition process,” he said.
He maintained that Gyamfi’s remarks should be understood in that context: removing barriers to legal participation in the sector and bringing unlicensed operations under regulation.
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