No More Empty Promises – New Mining Law Forces Companies to Sign Deal With Communities

For years, mining communities watched their gold leave while they got nothing. That may soon change.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Armah Kofi Buah, has revealed that a new mining act currently before Parliament will make it compulsory for mining companies to sign Community Development Agreements with their host communities.

According to him, “New mining act before parliament requires community development agreements as part of those agreements that we signed.”

What does it mean? It means no mining company can just take a lease and start digging. They must first sit with the community — chiefs, youth, women, farmers — and sign a legal agreement on what the community will gain.

This is different from the past, where mining companies decided alone what to give back — sometimes a borehole, sometimes nothing.

Mining companies must commit in writing to development goals set by the community itself — like schools, clinics, roads, jobs and training — for the life of the mine. 

Mining leases will be capped at 20 years maximum. 

District Mining Committees will become the starting point for issuing licences, and responsible cooperative mining will replace galamsey. 

If you hold a licence for five years without doing any work, government will take it from you.

Buah said Cabinet has already approved a new mining policy to replace the 2014 policy, and the new law is meant to give communities power, not just promises.

For many mining towns in Western, Ashanti and Eastern Regions who have lived with destroyed rivers and cracked buildings while gold trucks pass every day, this law could be the first time they will have a legal paper that says: “This is what you owe us.”

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