President John Dramani Mahama says the government remains resolute in the fight against illegal mining (galamsey) in the country, despite the complexities involved.
Acknowledging the high turbidity of most water bodies due to illegal mining, he recommitted to using all available legal mechanisms to root out menace but ruled out using a state of emergency anytime soon.
The President was speaking during his first media encounter on Wednesday evening at the Jubilee House, Accra, to update Ghanaians on critical national issues, strategic policies and ongoing development projects.
“I never deluded myself that the fight against illegal gold mining was going to be an event. The decay has eaten so much over the last eight years, and it’s going to take a lot of work,” he said.
He explained that because the livelihoods of over four million Ghanaians depended on small scale mining, dealing with the issue of illegal mining, “is going to be a process, but we will not give up. We have a determination to get on top of it.”
“I’ve been reluctant to implement a state of emergency in the galamsey fight because we’ve not exhausted the powers we even have without a state of emergency. We have the opportunity to arrest anybody and to confiscate.” President Mahama said.
He stated that since assuming office in January 2025, no license had been issued to any company to mine in forest reserves even as the government took steps to repeal LI-2462 to formalise commitments to end mining in forest reserves.
He said the national task force was actively combating the menace of illegal mining, and had so far seized hundreds of excavators, water pumps, and other heavy equipment and disrupted the networks that had long exploited and polluted lands and rivers.
He also said nine forest reserves had been successfully recovered from the grip of illegal miners.
Restoring these vital ecosystems under state protection and the rolled out “Tree for Life” initiative across the country to help restore degraded lands was imperative.
He noted that reforms at the GoldBod had formalised Ghana’s gold trade, reserving the commodity’s trade for only Ghanaians to help maximise national benefits, enhance transparency, and ensure that the wealth generated from natural resources was reinvested in communities and national development.
President Mahama said the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance, Customs and the Ports and Harbors Authority, had instituted a system for the proactive tracking of all imported excavators and earth-moving equipment from the port of entry.
Regarding human resource development, he stated that the government through a partnership with Australian government would organise training and knowledge exchanges to empower small scale miners to mine responsibly.
“We must not only think about just chasing them over the place without providing alternatives for them,” he stated, calling on all stakeholders to support the government to win the illegal mining fight.
Source: GNA
The post President Mahama says government still committed to fight against galamsey appeared first on Ghana Business News.
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