Create regulated mining zones and redirect galamseyers to legal miners – Kwadwo Poku urges gov't
Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Policies Research (INSTEPR) and member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communications Team, Kwadwo Poku, has proposed the creation of designated mining areas as part of measures to tackle illegal mining, locally known as galamsey.
He said the government must redirect the energy of young people engaged in illegal mining into regulated small-scale mining activities.
Speaking on Accra-based JoyNews’ AM Show on Tuesday, August 25, the NPP communicator argued that simply removing illegal miners from mining sites without providing alternative opportunities would not permanently solve the problem.
“Illegal mining is like armed robbery, right? People who are doing something illegal, that one you can't stop it. But you see, the energy the boys have to mine, you can redirect that energy. You need to provide an area for mining,” he said.
He said the government should invest in reconnaissance and preliminary exploration to identify areas suitable for small-scale mining and subsequently allocate them for regulated operations.
According to him, this would allow the state to redirect people involved in illegal mining into legitimate activities and make it easier to enforce the law against those who continue to operate illegally.
“You need to spend a lot of money in reconnaissance and initial exploratory exercises to earmark an area and redirect the energy. Then, when you've redirected that energy, then you can fight the illegal people,” he said.
Poku further attributed the scale of environmental destruction caused by illegal mining to the increasing use of heavy machinery.
He explained that the use of excavators had made illegal mining more destructive than the traditional methods previously used by small-scale miners.
According to him, traditional mining involved manual tools and was conducted on a much smaller scale, limiting the extent of environmental degradation.
He said the government must therefore strengthen systems for tracking excavators and ensure that machinery identified as being used for illegal mining is removed from affected areas.