Community mining must exclude foreigners - Adansihene

The Adansihene, Opagyakotwere Bonsra Afriyie II, has cautioned the government to ensure that foreigners and foreign companies are not involved in the proposed community mining.

According to him, foreigners getting involved would be a threat to the local people, as foreign companies with big muscles in the mining sector would push them away from the business.

Nana Bonsra raised the concern at a meeting between Mr. Samuel Kofi Dzamesi, Minister for Chieftaincy Affairs, and the chiefs of the Adansi, Bekwai and Akrofrom traditional areas at Obuasi to deliberate on matters regarding yet-to-be-established community mining by the government at Akrofrom.

The Adansihene cautioned the government not to involve foreigners in the exercise in order to make it a purely community mining project for the benefit of the people.

He urged chiefs to release lands for the exercise, and further called for the support of Nananom to fight illegal mining.

He commended the Minister and government for the involvement of chiefs for the success the community mining, but charged them to prioritise the protection of the land for future generations to also benefit.

He also tasked the government to ensure that no child of school-going age or school drop-out is registered to partake in the exercise by demanding the birth certificates of all applicants.

Nana Oppong Frenyan II, Adankragyamanhene, who represented the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs, also tasked the government to consider the representation of the traditional councils to ensure that the community mining benefits the people.

Mr. Samuel Dzamesi assured Nananom (chiefs) of the commitment of the government to make community mining locally-based to the benefit of the people of the locality, adding that the workers should be covered with insurance and must be Ghanaian investors, while the equipment must also be insured.

He said ID cards would be given to the number of small scale miners engaged at a particular site, and urged district chief executives to ensure that anyone in mining is registered in the legal framework of the project.

He suggested that small scale miners who cannot manage their concession could hand them over to communities under community mining, and warned that land cannot be acquired for community mining and later ceded to an individual.

The Minister urged the chiefs to support the President’s vision to deliver, and stressed that a paramount chief must be represented on the committee, which is an ad-hoc one.