The Okyehene, Osagyefo Amotia Ofori Panin II is suggesting a total ban on gold mining as a measure to curb the menace of galamsey.
Speaking to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources when he called on him at his palace on Thursday, April 27, 2021, the Okyehene justified his suggestion saying the nation has over the years failed to put proceeds made from mining Ghana’s gold to prudent use.
According to the Okyehene, the nation’s gold deposits is thus better left to future generations.
“As it is now, everybody is doing what they want and we can’t fight the fight (against illegal mining) with everything going on like this. And I’ve said to you guys that, left with me, we should leave it for future generations. Because we have mined for over a hundred and something years and I, in particular, don’t see what we have been able to benefit,” the Ofori Panin stated.
Further to his suggestion, the Okyehene called on the government to impose a one-year moratorium on mining to allow measures to be taken to properly streamline mining activities in the country in tandem with the law and best practices.
“I sit here and I don’t know the number of mining companies in Okyeman who have been licensed. I don’t know, I only know of about three of them but there are many more. So the Minerals Commission should come out so that we can publish them and say these companies are in the Western Region, these companies are in the Eastern Region, these companies are in the Ashanti Region; so that we will know. A lot of things are going on that we don’t know. A lot of them have fake licences,” he said.
The Okyehene stated that traditional leaders are being accused wrongly of having a hand in the current galamsey mess as they have no direct role in the licensing and regulatory regime of gold mining in the country.
“And this business of trying to tell us that Nananom know about it, Nananom don’t know anything. Like I said, we don’t issue licences, we are not part of the process of issuing licences, we don’t make the laws, we have no budget, we don’t issue leases and we have no coercive force to fight these guys. So all those things should be told, how they want Nananom to participate so we can work together,” he said.
