Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCBC) members have been reassured by President John Dramani Mahama of the government’s resolve to fight the threat of illegal mining, or galamsey, in the nation.
He said that the government had made great strides in recovering forest reserves that illegal miners had invaded.
The President revealed this when a 20-member GCBC delegation, led by the organization’s president, Reverend Matthew Gyamfi, who is also the Sunyani Diocese’s bishop, paid him a courtesy call.
The Bishops were in the White House to congratulate the President for winning the general election on December 7, 2024, and to bring to his attention a long list of national issues, including the threat posed by illegal mining, education reform, governance, and electoral changes.
Fighting galamsey is a very complicated battle, according to President Mahama, and many of the country’s young, inexperienced people have turned to illegal small-scale mining as a simple way to get work and earn money because there aren’t enough economic opportunities.
More than 1.5 million Ghanaians, he added, were thought to be engaged in that industry, either through artisanal small-scale mining, employment with small-scale mining firms, or simply what they term galamsey.
He claimed that small-scale mining was not illegal in and of itself, but that there was a difference between it and illegal mining.
He said that only Ghanaians were permitted to engage in small-scale mining, which was permitted by law.
He claimed that foreigners invading the small-scale mining sector and bringing in new equipment that could quickly damage vast tracts of land were the cause of the problem.
The president claimed that in the past, young people in the country would dig a tiny hole with basic tools like pickaxes and shovels, extract a few gold nuggets, and then sell them to generate some cash.
He claimed that the country’s problems started when outsiders brought chanfan machines and excavators into the mining area.
He claimed that the country began to witness widespread environmental degradation as a result of the employment of excavators and chafan.
There are 288 officially designated forest reserves in Ghana, according to President Mahama, and illegal miners have encroached on 44 of them.
The President clarified that since there was no gold in the other 244 forest reserves, illicit miners had not encroached on them.
“But the 44 that have gold under those trees are attractive magnets for illegal small-scale mining. So of these 44, there were nine that were designated red zones.”
Illegal miners were drawn to the nine red zones forest reserves because there is gold beneath the trees.
“The security services couldn’t go into them. The forest guards could not go into those reserves because the people there were armed to the teeth, and anybody who went was in danger of losing their life. Several journalists went and were, you know, given a severe beating and almost lost their lives.”
“The government decided to take it step by step as part of efforts to rid the nine red zones of forest reserves of illegal miners,” President Mahama remarked.
“So for the nine red zone forest reserves, we identified them, and I’m happy to say that seven of them have been cleared and the illegal miners in those forest reserves have been taken out.”
He claimed that in the past, once the security forces had purged the reserves of illicit miners, they were unable to remain there indefinitely and that the miners returned as soon as they left.
As part of their efforts to protect the reclaimed forest reserves from illegal miners, the government, according to President Mahama, has implemented a strategy whereby, once the reserves have been cleared, they can maintain a force to deter illegal miners and have a rapid deployment force ready to go into the area and seize the excavators if they see anyone entering.
He said that the anti-galamsey task team had destroyed numerous chanfan mining machines discovered on the river and had apprehended about 200 excavators.
The president of GCBC, Rev. Matthew Gyamfi, gave the president a long list of national issues that needed his attention, including the threat posed by illegal mining, governance and electoral reforms, and educational reforms.
Source: newsthemegh.com