{"id":302421,"date":"2017-03-17T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=302421"},"modified":"2017-03-17T06:00:15","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T06:00:15","slug":"obrempong-writes-how-laxity-and-greed-worsened-galamsey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/03\/obrempong-writes-how-laxity-and-greed-worsened-galamsey\/","title":{"rendered":"Obrempong writes: How laxity and greed worsened galamsey"},"content":{"rendered":"
All rivers were not polluted in a day. All of us including you, yes you my reader saw the rivers polluted bit by bit, but we gave no attention to it. Each of us felt it was the work of that man. Perhaps we said to ourselves that people are paid with our taxes to carry out that function, so why must we worry about it.<\/p>\n
Some of us did not even have any clue that the brownish rivers we all see and pass by are the same that end up in our taps. Go to the Daboase Treatment Plant and see how the yellowish Prah River is scooped and sent to our homes on daily basis.<\/p>\n
I guess if many of us had visited these plants, we might have been angrier enough and called for immediate end to galamsey by whichever means practicable.<\/p>\n
That said; let us see how we got here and how we can get out of this mess.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Genesis of today\u2019s trouble<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cGalamsey\u201d gave birth to small scale mining in 1989 when the government realized that, apart from the large scale mining companies like the Anglogolds, revenue could be generated from those traditional dig and wash [the pick-axe and shovel] method.<\/p>\n As a result, PNDC Law 218 legalizing small scale mining came in. Prior to this \u201cnew\u201d act, people were doing the dig and wash.<\/p>\n Until sometime around 2006-2007, people who acquired licenses to do this small scale mining [dig and wash], were doing it somehow the right way. They were not digging down farmlands and in river bodies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Didn\u2019t the regulators notice the mess?<\/strong><\/p>\n But, after 2006, a new phenomenon came up. Global demand for gold was increasing whilst the population was also increasing. Contribution of other means of supply of gold other than the multi-national mining companies was very much appreciated.<\/p>\n Small scale miners realized the primary tools were not efficient enough to catch up and so they required some heavy equipment in order to increase their yield.<\/p>\n Some of the miners resorted to banks, politicians and other businessmen for loans to acquire the equipment. By 2011 and 2012, a good number of excavators had been introduced into the sector which was supposed to be called small-scale mining.<\/p>\n Some businessmen and politicians at various levels realized the potential and then bought equipment and lands.<\/p>\n The Minerals Commission was needed to streamline this new form of mining because the face of small scale mining was changing. However, the regulatory environment did not match up with the trends. Was it that the regulators did not see it transitioning or it that they were coerced?<\/p>\n Why chiefs involvement?<\/strong><\/p>\n About the same time, some chiefs in resource rich communities saw the benefit of giving out lands to these investors because, their share in the form of cash was paid instantly to them by the one coming for the concession.<\/p>\n They had also found an antidote to the Mineral\u2019s Commission attitude of giving concession to miners without the knowing of the traditional authority in the communities. When they get to know, their royalties also take only God knows how long before it gets to their reach, amidst all manner of statutory deductions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So this time, the chiefs were going to give the concessions to the miners before the Minerals Commission even dreams of it. It was nice doing business with the politicians and the businessmen.<\/p>\n The coming of the Chinese<\/strong><\/p>\n The Chinese, with their \u201cAfrican Gold Invasion\u201d policy, have heard of the booming small-scale turned medium scale mining in Ghana.<\/p>\n Apparently, some Ghanaians who had spotted the lapses in the law, and were capitalizing on it spoke to their Chinese counterparts. As businessmen too, they came in their numbers.<\/p>\n