Galamsey’ clampdown will affect gold output – Chamber of Mines

The drop in national gold output will result from a corresponding decline in the amount of the yellow mental that small scale miners will buy and export, he explained.
Already, Mr Koney said export figures at the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) showed that output from small scale miners  had gone down, following the ongoing attempts to stop the illegal mining of the mineral.

He, however, explained in a May 7 interview that the decline would not affect the production numbers of members of the chamber.
“It will not affect our members, but the export from the small scale miners have gone down at PMMC,” he said.
He explained that the decline in the export figures of the small scale miners “tells you that most of the output which is said to be small scale mining is actually illegal mining.”.
Last year, gold output from small scale miners accounted for 34 per cent of total production from the country.

Impact on revenue
Although most of the illegal miners do not pay taxes, their exit from gold production through the clampdown is expected to impact the country’s gross earnings from gold.
This is because they would not be exporting this time and that will result in a shortfall in foreign exchange earnings from the mineral.
“The impact will not be soo much on revenue because they do not pay taxes. I think the impact would be on our gross earnings from gold,” Mr Koney explained.
“Foreign exchange earnings to support the cedi, I think, will be impacted somewhat,” he added.

The ‘galamsey’ fight
Although ‘galamsey’  is impacting negatively on the country over the years, the fight against the menace has hightened recently.
The government, together with the media and other civil society organisations, have waded into the fight, rresulting in the seizure and surrender of some of the equipment used in perpetrating the act.
It is not clear yet if the action will be sustained towards the end of the year, given that it is not the first of its kind. — GB