\n
The Director of WACAM, a civil Society group in the mining sector, Mr Daniel Owusu Koranteng, has said that the power imbalance that occurs during negotiating of mining contracts is \u00a0a key issue that needed to be addressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He alleged that mostly after licences are issued, communities are left to their fate to negotiate the terms with multinational mining companies, even though these communities lacked the capacity to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Consequently, \u00a0the communities give their social license only for them to realise after about three years that their lands are gone, very small compensation has been paid, their rivers \u00a0polluted but then the companies insist there was a negotiation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the nation opens up too much for big mining companies to locate in rural areas and we leave the poor people to their fate to negotiate on technical issues and documents such as the Environmental Impact Assessment, then the outcome normally indicates a kind of power imbalance,\u201d he said at a stakeholders\u2019 forum in Accra.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr Koranteng said the mining law available in Ghana now was promotional and so the situation called for a very strong regulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is done to ensure that we promote mining. So it\u2019s just like going to the market and your wares are not sold and in the evening you reduce the price for people to come and buy and that is what we did,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Licensing\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In a rebuttal, the Mining Advisor at the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, Mr Benjamin Aryee, said that government was not only concerned about promoting mining but appreciates its responsibility to promote the livelihoods of the citizenry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Therefore, he said the government promoted investment into the mining sector in order to generate some resources to carry out some of these responsibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr Aryee explained that the small scale mining licenses were filed at the local offices of the Minerals Commission and forwarded to the head office after feasibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said the commission in turn wrote to the district assemblies concerned and expressly stated that copies were served on chiefs and land owners for about three weeks, after which if no objection was raised then the processing of the license continued.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI must say that in practice though it has been very difficult to get this done. I know that for a fact because there have been a number of complaints. But whenever there have been any objection from anyone the processing of the license stops until it\u2019s sorted out,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He added tha tthe government was keen to ensure that the local interest was protected.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The forum<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The stakeholders\u2019 forum on the campaign against irresponsible mining activities was organised by WACAM in collaboration with Citi FM and Tropenbos Ghana.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It was on the theme, \u201cMobilising National Efforts for Responsible Mining.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Most participants expressed concern about the fact that mining, no matter the form was creating serious problems to the environment such that people could no longer engage in profitable farming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Head of the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Wazi Apoh, said the EIA of irresponsible mining privileged studies on water bodies, wildlife and noise pollution to the neglect of heritage impact assessment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He called for a heritage impact assessment bill to be put in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will compel all earthmoving activities, all companies that deal with earth moving, mining firms etc to make use of archeologists to test all these sites to make sure that they don\u2019t impact negatively on our heritage resources before a go ahead is given,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He added if the above was done, it would maintain the sanctity of the county\u2019s heritage which defined the identity of its people. \u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The President of the National Association of Small Scale Miners, Nii Adjetey Mensah expressed worry that the six-month moratorium issued to small scale mining operators to stop work posed a serious risk to a lot of miners who had taken loans from banks and would be unable to pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe livelihoods of other people who work at our sites are also at stake. We are saying that don\u2019t throw the baby and the bath water away,\u201d he said. \u2014 GB<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Director of WACAM, a civil Society group in the mining sector, Mr Daniel Owusu Koranteng, has said that the power imbalance that occurs during negotiating of mining contracts is \u00a0a key issue that needed to be addressed.\u00a0
He alleged that mostly after licences are issued, communities are left to their fate to negotiate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-391859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n
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