IMPUNITY OF A HUNGRY ROBBER

Friday September 04, 2009
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In 1989, the government, concerned about the harm to the economy of the operations of illegal miners, felt that the best way to contain their activities with the intent to make the activity more harmless and controllable was to legalise it.

Thus was promulgated PNDC Law 218 that legalised galamsey.

Twenty years down the road, what do we see in Ghana? Galamsey has gone totally out of control: it is harming the environment; harming the investment climate; harming human life and harming the international reputation of Ghana.

From Obuasi yesterday came the report that the galamsey operators have invaded the Anglo Gold Ashanti concessions. With impunity, they no longer operate under cover of darkness anymore.

The Deputy Managing Director of the company says that armed to the teeth, they now operate, mostly during the day, “in some of the rich concessions of the mining company, such as the (once famous) Adansi shaft.”

From Mpohor, Benso, Bogoso and Prestea, among other mining areas, the stories are no different. Illegal miners shoot to kill anybody whom they suspect would be a threat and they steal the gold into whose exploration and exploitation the mining companies have spent millions of dollars, in addition to paying compensation, undertaking alternative livelihood activities and paying royalties.

While the galamsey operators shoot to kill and do not fear arrest (because they know nobody would dare arrest them), the mining companies’ security officers are not supposed to shoot; indeed, they are not even supposed to bear arms, afraid what the international community might say!

That is only part of the story.

Hear Nigel Tamlyn, General Manager of Golden Star Bogoso/Prestea Limited (GSBPL) in a lament: “Because they are unregulated…the galamsey operators often cause major environmental damage, use mercury for processing, de-vegetate indiscriminately and do not conduct reclamation of trenches.”

This is beyond all endurance. What the mining companies are being told, therefore, amounts to this: that the people are poor; they must survive, and in order to survive, they must be allowed to steal! We do not think that it makes investment wisdom.

We do not see the wisdom in that line of thinking because there is clearly a difference between galamsey, which is illegal, and small scale mining, which is legal, and is, in fact, being encouraged both by the Minerals Commission and the Chamber of Mines.

Indeed, a few months ago, the official delegation that undertook a trip to study small scale mining in other parts of the world included members of the small scale mining association.

These people operate within the law, especially the environmental law; they pay tax.

Because of the legality of their operations, the mining companies are carving out portions of their old concessions to the small scale miners. We think this should be the ideal.

It beats the imagination why somebody who wants access to a gold concession should turn down an offer to do so legally, but continue in his illegality.

They, the illegal operator, causing all the harm, do not receive even a reprimand.

The Times is of the opinion that it is because of the silence of the international community that the galamsey operators have become so brazen.

We urge that all stakeholders, namely the mining companies, the government, the small scale miners association and civil society groups should get together to brainstorm over how to convince the galamsey operators to convert to small scale mining.

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