Government to track importation of Excavators -President Mahama 

President Mahama has announced that the Government will track excavators to know whether they were being used for illegal mining or not and change the permitting regime, as the country had more excavators than in the whole of Africa.

“We are going to change the permitting regime. You will not be allowed to import an excavator or put it on a ship unless you get a permit before you can ship an excavator. Mining cannot be sustainable unless it is also responsible,” the President said.

“As Africa’s largest gold producer and a country with diverse mineral resources, Ghana has become a model for sustainable ASM development, driving economic growth and improving the livelihoods of local communities”.

The President made the disclosure in his remarks at the opening of the 2025 Global Mining Summit (Mining in Motion Summit), an initiative of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene.

The two-day Summit on the theme “Sustainable Mining and Local Growth – Leveraging Resources for Global Impact”, shines a spotlight on Ghana’s Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) sector.

It aims to promote responsible and innovative ASM practices, policy reforms and international collaboration in Ghana.

He said environmental degradation; water pollution and community displacement were not inevitable by-products of mining; stating that they were the consequences of poor governance and enforcement.

He said the Government was strengthening environmental, social and governance frameworks across the mining sector, which would include banning toxic chemicals in gold processing, like mercury, mandating site rehabilitation, and so it means that small-scale miners and medium-scale mining must also have rehabilitation clauses in their permits to reclaim the land, enforcing community development agreements, and promoting renewable energy use in our mining sector.

President Mahama said true policy and regulation would ensure that every ounce of gold or gramme of lithium mined in Ghana left with a positive green footprint.

He said the world was transitioning; stating that the use of fossil fuels was waning, and clean energy was rising and with this comes a surge in demand for critical minerals like lithium, graphite, nickel and other rare earth minerals.

“Ghana is ready to play a central role. We’re establishing policy, legal and investment frameworks to explore and develop critical mineral reserves, build refining and battery manufacturing capacity, attract ethical long-term investors, promote local content and technology transfer.”

President Mahama said in this new global order, their mineral wealth was not just a national asset but a strategic geopolitical resource.

He said the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), a key plank in his administration’s strategy to reform the gold mining sector and ensure maximum benefits for Ghanaians from their gold resources, had taken off, noting that in its short existence, it had sanitized the gold sector, ensuring maximum returns from their gold exports.

He said Ghana’s gold exports, through the PMMC/Goldbod, earn the country $2.7 billion between January and April.

This figure, the President said was expected to increase exponentially throughout the year and the Goldbod was not only about exporting gold, and that it would soon roll out a track and trace system to ensure that Ghana’s gold exports were procured from environmentally sustainable sources.

He said the Goldbod would work to train artisanal and small-scale miners in responsible and sustainable mining practices.

The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, in collaboration with the Gold Board, is also soon to launch, in cooperation with the private sector, an ambitious project to reclaim 10,000 hectares of mined outlands.

He said the future of mining was not national, stating that it was continental and the African Continental Free Trade Area provided them with an unparalleled opportunity to retain value within Africa, establish regional supply chains, create joint refining and research institutions, and strengthen intra-African investment flows.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene said corruption and political miscalculations were major factors behind the failure of the fight against illegal mining (galamsey) in the country.

GNA

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