Excavators to be registered and monitored
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Minerals Commission (GMC), Dr Toni Aubynn, has hinted that all excavators in the country will be registered next year to help monitor those used in mining in the country.
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The registered excavators would be fixed with tracking devices so that they could be recalled to cover pits they created during their operations.
The registration and monitoring would be jointly done by the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Minerals Commission, tax collecting agencies and others to benefit from their operations.
“Why should the number of excavators in Ghana outnumber senior high schools in the country?” he asked.
Dr Aubynn said the GMC was currently liaising with other stakeholders in Ghana to embark on a sensitisation programme so that when the policy was rolled out, it would not face any hiccups.
He announced this at the inauguration of the Obuasi Gold Buyers Association at Obuasi.
The 40-member group seeks to unite all gold buyers in the area to seek their welfare, as well as have one mouthpiece.
He lamented the connivance of some Ghanians with foreigners to plunder the nation’s natural resources while the indigenous people lived in abject poverty.
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“Although illegal mining is having a negative effect on the nation’s lands, some chiefs and people in authority connive to cause havoc to the environment without thinking about generations unborn,” he said.
In 2013, small-scale mining accounted for 34 per cent (1.4 million ounces) of the total gold production; however, not all was sold through the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC).
Dr Aubynn stated that in order to help ensure that every ounce of gold produced in the country was accounted for, a new legislation would be passed next year to make it mandatory for every ounce of gold produced by small-scale miners to be sold only through the PMMC.
The Managing Director of the PMMC, Mr George Abradu-Otoo, said the sudden takeover of the gold buying and selling trade by foreigners was against the laws of the country.
This, he said, was affecting many Ghanaians who were operating in that sector and called on law enforcement agencies in the country to sit up and apprehend the culprits most of whom operated with the connivance of their Ghanaian counterparts.
The Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Yamin, urged stakeholders in the gold industry to desist from investing in luxury vehicles and rather re-invest in equipment to enhance their operations.
The Chairman of the Obuasi Gold Buyers Association, Mr Joseph K. Bonsu, appealed to the government to release part of the land at Obuasi to the locals to create an avenue to operate their small-scale mining to create jobs for the youth, most of whom had been laid off by AngloGold Ashanti.