The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has disclosed that the government has laid a new Legislative Instrument (LI) in Parliament to fundamentally overhaul Ghana’s mining laws and strengthen the participation of local communities in mining activities.
The proposed reforms, he said, would reduce the maximum duration of mining leases from 30 years to 20 years, tighten the rules governing exploration licences and decentralise the mining licensing process through the establishment of district mining committees.
Mr Armah-Kofi Buah made the disclosure on Monday when he commissioned a new GH¢12.3 million office complex for the Minerals Commission, as part of efforts to decentralise mining regulatory services and bring them closer to mining communities.
He said the reforms formed part of the government’s broader agenda to ensure that Ghana’s mineral resources were managed responsibly and that communities directly affected by mining had a greater say in decisions concerning mining activities in their areas.
The Minister said the existing system, under which key decisions and services were concentrated at the Minerals Commission’s headquarters in Accra, was no longer sustainable.
He questioned why a company seeking to undertake mining activities in a particular community should be able to obtain a licence from Accra without the knowledge or involvement of the people in the area.
“Why should someone come from the Minerals Commission head office and require to acquire licences to mine in (a community) when the local community have no knowledge of it?” he asked.
Mining leases
Mr Armah-Kofi Buah said one of the major changes contained in the proposed legislation was the reduction of the maximum period for mining leases from 30 years to 20 years.
According to him, the shorter period would allow the state and local communities to periodically assess mining operations and determine the future of mineral concessions based on prevailing circumstances.
“We need to completely overhaul our mining laws,” he said, adding that the 20-year limit would provide an opportunity for Ghanaians to reassess mining operations after a significant period.
He said the reforms also took into consideration technological developments in the mining sector and the need to ensure that mineral concessions did not remain locked up for decades without productive activity.
Crackdown on speculators
The Minister also announced tougher measures to deal with speculative acquisition of mining concessions.
He said the new regime would place greater emphasis on exploration and would limit exploration licences to five years.
Under the proposed arrangement, companies would initially receive exploration licences for two years to demonstrate their capacity to undertake exploration activities, with a possible extension of three additional years.
“If after five years you can’t find the gold, we’ll take the licences,” Mr Armah-Kofi Buah said.
He explained that the measure was intended to clear the sector of individuals and companies that acquired mining licences without undertaking meaningful exploration, only to hold the concessions until they could attract investors and profit from them.
He said such practices had resulted in large portions of the country being tied up under mining concessions without corresponding economic activity.
District mining committees
A key feature of the proposed reforms, according to the Minister, is the establishment of District Mining Committees to make the mining licensing process more participatory and community-driven.
The committees would comprise traditional authorities, community leaders, Assembly Members and representatives of relevant government agencies.
Under the proposed system, applicants seeking mining licences would first have to engage the district-level structures rather than dealing solely with officials in Accra.
The committees would visit and assess the proposed mining sites to determine whether the areas contained cocoa farms, water bodies, settlements or other environmentally and socially sensitive features.
Only after such an assessment would recommendations be forwarded to the Minerals Commission for consideration.
Mr Armah-Kofi Buah described the initiative as a “bottom-up approach” to mining governance, saying it would ensure that communities had a voice in decisions that directly affected their livelihoods and environment.
He further stressed that the decentralisation of mining regulatory services would strengthen the Minerals Commission’s ability to monitor mining operations and respond more quickly to challenges.
Minerals Commission empowered
The Minister said the opening of the new office was therefore not merely about providing physical infrastructure but about giving the Minerals Commission greater authority and capacity to perform its regulatory responsibilities at the local level.
He questioned the current situation in which district offices existed but lacked sufficient authority to undertake certain regulatory functions involving large-scale mining operations.
“It doesn’t make sense to me,” he said, insisting that basic services required by mining companies and communities should be available at the local level rather than forcing people to travel to Accra.
Mr Armah-Kofi Buah said the government was pursuing a similar decentralisation programme at the Lands Commission.
He disclosed that more than 32 new district Lands Commission offices had been established over the past year to bring land-related services closer to citizens.
He also announced an ongoing digitalisation programme aimed at allowing people to access land services remotely and reducing delays in land registration and the acquisition of land titles.
The Minister acknowledged public frustration with delays at the Lands Commission, citing his own experience of waiting for several years to obtain the title to his house.
Local employment
Beyond decentralising services, Mr Armah-Kofi Buah said the government wanted the new Minerals Commission offices to become avenues for empowering young people in mining communities.
He said he had directed the Commission to ensure that qualified young men and women from the locality were given opportunities to work at the new office.
“We are not bringing the offices to go and bring people from Accra. We want to try as much as possible to empower the people in this locality,” he said.
He urged mining companies to work with local communities and challenged them to stop using lack of qualification as an excuse for failing to employ people from mining areas.
The Minister said the reforms represented a “new dawn” for Ghana’s mining sector, with a stronger emphasis on decentralisation, community participation, environmental protection and efficient regulation.
He said the government remained committed to ensuring that Ghana’s mineral wealth translated into tangible benefits for the people while protecting the country’s natural resources for future generations.
For more news, join The Chronicle Newspaper channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBSs55E50UqNPvSOm2z
