Former President and the current presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has said that his government will develop a national policy to restructure the small scale mining sector when voted into power come December 2020.
Mr. Mahama made this known, while reading his promises at the launch of the manifesto of the NDC yester night.
Highlighting the policies and strategies for the mining sector when voted into power, he noted that in helping the mining sector gain its grounds, a national restructuring policy will be developed whiles a board to provide mining support services will be set up.
“We will develop a national policy to restructure the small scale mining sector. We will set up what we call a Gold Board. This board will be responsible for small scale mining sector to provide mining support services and especially in the area of safety.
“GOLDBOD will issue licenses to Ghanaian companies and foreign companies with local partners, giving clear geographical boundaries as their catchment area for production.”
The Gold Board (GOLDBOD) for the small-scale mining sector will have the responsibility of providing mining support services to the sector, ranging from concession viability, health, safety and efficiency in mine operations, equipment financing and mining input, research and standardisation, gold recovery optimisation as well as post-mining, and land reclamation services.
He also revealed that, they will compel small-scale miners to undertake skills training in land reclamation techniques as a required component of their operations to minimise their adverse environmental impacts
“We will train small scale miners in land reclamation techniques as a critical component of the operations.”
He further added that, he will promote legally and properly regulated operated medium and small scale mining to become attractive and well paid business ventures creating jobs for our youth.
Mr. Mahama then revealed his plan of banning the export of unrefined gold by the small-scale mining companies in the country.
“Put a ban on the export of unrefined gold produced by the small-scale mining companies in Ghana, via the establishment of gold refineries in gold producing regions of the country in conjunction with the private sector.”
He further announced that, after assuming office, he will introduce an off-taker system for the refined gold, with a buying program, where the Bank of Ghana, will refine gold as part of the Central Bank’s newly introduced precious metal reserve purchasing programme.
This according to the NDC, they will also ensure that the Bank of Ghana’s purchasing programme will be backed by a metal leveraging programme with international bullion holders
He then disclosed that the nation will hold a portion of our international reserves in Gold to help stabilize our economy and currency.
He finally said that his government will track and take back all excavators missing from the mining sector and re-issue confiscated legitimate mining licenses to miners.
“We will track down and take back all excavators that are missing. And will return the excavators to their rightful owners.”
“We will re-issue confiscated legitimate mining licenses to miners. For persons whose mining concessions have been illegitimately seized, we shall return the concessions to the legitimate owners.”
