The national interest surrounding illegal mining has hit the roof top. Every right-thinking individual in the country has in one way or the other advocated for an end to the terror that is being visited on the lands and water bodies of the nation.
Analysts have argued there are laws against illegal mining but they are not biting enough or being effectively enforced.
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is mandated to safeguard the lands and all the resources therein, according to law. Next is the Minerals Commission of Ghana, which is government’s agency with the primary responsibility of developing and coordinating mineral sector policies and monitoring their implementation. The Commission was established under the Minerals Commission Law (PNDCL.154).
With the promulgation of the 1992 Constitution, the Parliament of Ghana enacted the Minerals Commission Act, 1993 (Act 450) to give continued legal backing to the existence of the Commission, as required by Article 269(1) of the Constitution.
An Act to revise and consolidate the law relating to minerals and mining and to provide for connected purposes, the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006(Act 703) was enacted.
Changes were made in the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act 900), followed by the enactment of the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 995).
Though Act 995 imposes harsher penalties on illegal miners than the previous law, The Chronicle has discovered a loophole and would like to initiate a discussion about it.
We have noted that one of the challenges the Minerals Commission is facing in its fight against illegal mining is the action by state security to move to apprehend illegal miners on site after they have been prompted.
The Chronicle participated in a media workshop organised by the Minerals Commission on Minerals and Mining Legislation. The program educated the media on the operations of the Minerals Commission, during which participants brainstormed on the challenges of the fight against illegal mining and the way forward.
We noted with utmost surprise that, contrary to the perception of a rather idle agency regulating mining activities in the country, there are other stakeholders who are not up and doing. One such institution is the state security, which in most situations fails to act on alerts from the Minerals Commission on illegal mining activities.
Participants were informed of the laid down channel of reporting by district officers of the Minerals Commission, which may be information of illegal activities, which is then forwarded to the appropriate security quarters, but in most cases, little or no action is taken.
Interestingly, district officers go the extent of giving out the location of the illegal activity, including exact land coordinates, to enable the security to identify the site, even without the Minerals Commission leading them.
We, first of all, commend efforts of all stakeholders fighting illegal mining in the country, be it in the gold, quarry, or sand winning.
However, considering what this paper learnt from the very educative workshop by the Minerals Commission, we would like to suggest that an amendment be made to give arresting powers to the regulator.
We welcome further education on the law on this subject, as we do not intend to be Law Lords, but our interest is how to jaw-jaw to solve the issue, derailing the effort of the Minerals Commission, who in the end receive backlash for purportedly not having done any work.
It is our blief that if the law allows for some state security personnel to be on secondment with the Minerals Commission through the parent sector, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources’ collaboration with state security, in accordance with the law, the former will have security at their disposal for quick arrest, given that it is always on the ground monitoring mining activities.
We are making this suggestion based on what we observed to be a gap in the mandate of the Minerals Commission per the laws it operates under and the reality on the ground.
We hope that the legal brains will keep this debate up and deliberate to come up with a way forward. It is important because most of these illegal miners wield dangerous weapons, and it is only state security that will be able to face and defeat them.
However, to avoid the bureaucracies of reporting to appropriate quarters who may not act on the issue, the regulating body should be mandated by law to have security at its berk and call.
