Poor state support for small-scale mining fuelled galamsey – Sammy Gyamfi

Ghana's ongoing illegal mining issue, commonly referred to as galamsey, has been partly caused by a lack of state support and formalisation for the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector, according to Sammy Gyamfi, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board. In an interview on X, Mr Gyamfi expressed disappointment that successive governments, despite implementing measures to formalise ASM in 1989, did not provide the necessary support for the sector's sustainability.

He highlighted the absence of adequate investment in training, capacity building, equipment, monitoring, and environmental reclamation as key factors contributing to the challenges faced by the ASM sector.

Gyamfi also pointed out the failure to establish effective systems for registering and monitoring mining equipment, as well as tracking mining activities across different areas. He argued that these shortcomings had allowed the illegal mining problem to persist over the years, describing it as an "age-long problem".

Furthermore, Gyamfi cast doubt on the state's involvement in Ghana's domestic gold-buying sector, which he claimed is largely controlled by private buyers. He questioned the existence of effective mechanisms to verify the origin of gold purchased from artisanal and small-scale miners, particularly during the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme initiated in 2021.

The lack of traceability, he argued, made it difficult for the state to distinguish between gold sourced from legally operating mines and that obtained through environmentally destructive illegal mining activities.