ARE WE SLEEPING?

Foreign gold seekers are nothing new in the country, but a new wave of prospectors -- notably the Chinese -- at the small-scale level are now making their presence felt.

The Country’s laws stipulate that foreign companies are only allowed to work on large, open-pit mining operations.

But there is evidence -- which is confirmed by activists -- that Chinese entrepreneurs are also illegally controlling small-scale operations behind the scenes, typically through a local intermediary.

The influx of these Chinese immigrants into the country’s small-scale mining sector, hitherto reserved for Ghanaians, has now become a national crisis.
Approximately 30,000 Chinese nationals now live and work in Ghana, according to immigration data.

Dr. Benjamin Aryee, Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, told the Business & Financial Times (B&FT): “The situation has necessitated the establishment of a national task-force -- comprising National Security, Ghana Immigration Service, Minerals Commission, Chiefs, and the Municipal and District Chief Executives of the mining communities -- which has been tasked to monitor what is happening and try to stem it as quickly as possible.

“We are working with the security agencies, but beyond them we are as well collaborating with the local authorities and the Assemblies because they are the key stakeholders in this since the problem has now become a national concern.”
He noted that the Chinese are all over the place, and even for immigration it is now a challenge.

“They have arrested and deported a few of them, but it is simply the sheer size of it that is bothersome,” Aryee said.

DCOP Dr. Peter Wiredu, Director of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), revealed that over 70 illegal Chinese miners in the Western Region were arrested last year.

A recent Wassa Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) study showed around 120 Chinese were living and working in Dikoto, a village near Wassa Akropong and three surrounding villages in the Western Region; just one of many pockets of activity whose legality is hard to ascertain.

Reactions from Chiefs and others

Peter Kofi Owusu-Ashia Junior, Municipal Chef Executive Officer of Upper Denkyira East, told the B&FT in an interview that, currently, the Municipality has almost been taken over by the Chinese nationals illegally operating in the small-scale mining sector -- and that the Offin River is also totally under siege.

He explained that the situation is now a big challenge: “We tried to flush them out, but our attempts failed. We prosecuted 19 of them; after just one week, they came with reinforcement and now it is very difficult to deal with them. Now we have been overwhelmed.”

Ogyeanoho Yaw Gyabi II, Omanhene, Sefwie Awhiaso, in the Western Region, confirmed to B&FT that the Offin River Basin is full of Chinese nationals.

“They are even in the position to shoot back if you attempt to drive them away. This cannot happen in China, It is so because we are unable to enforce our bye-laws. How can Chinese come and operate in our small-scale mining sector?

“At the end of the day, the community blames the Chiefs and Elders for conniving with the Chinese nationals for their involvement in the small-scale mining operations.

“They come into the country without any working permit, but you find them working and operating illegal mining in the small-scale sector.”

He called on the nation to bury its political differences and wake up to flush them out from the small-scale sector. This, he said, cannot happen in Botswana’s mining industry.

Nana Nteboah Pra, IV, Divisional Chief of Heman Prestea, Western Region, explained that the illegal small-scale mining operations must be tackled holistically and be solved with a multifaceted approach.

“We should take a multi-disciplinary approach to help salvage the situation.”
He disclosed that more than 5,000 people are involved in the illegal mining operations in and around the Heman Prestea community, and there are both indigenes and foreigners.

He said that government loses huge sums of revenue from the operations because they are not covered by the tax net.

He called on the Minerals Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and the national security agencies to give a hand in addressing this problem.

Chinese Cartel

An increasing number of small-scale mines are presently owned by Ghanaians on paper but controlled illegally by Chinese entrepreneurs.

Last year, Dikoto's village chief was brought before the Minerals Commission and warned about hosting illegal Chinese miners. In separate police moves, some 25 Chinese nationals have been arrested this year for illegal mining.

The Chinese nationals in the country’s mining sector increasingly rely on Chinese equipment and capital, and the locals say their share of the profits is shrinking in comparison to what the Chinese make.

The Western Regional Police command recently arrested eight suspects, including five Chinese, for engaging in illegal mining activities at Wassa Akropong in the Wassa Amenfi West District of the region, a mining community.

Items retrieved from the suspects at their mining site included a pump-action gun, a double eagle

pistol, 17 (BB) cartridges and six (AA) live ammunition rounds, and some equipment used in the illegal mining activities.

The eight suspects are being processed for Court. The Regional Police Commander, Moses Ransford Ninso, disclosed this after a joint Police and Military team had embarked on an operation at Bonsaso to clamp down on activities of the illegal miners.

He stressed that drastic actions will be taken against all illegal small-scale miners in the region, who are polluting the water-bodies and degrading the forest reserves and environment in the region.

More than 100,000 Ghanaians work in the small, dark mine shaft of these illegal operators. Together, they produce about 20 percent of the country's gold.

Some have welcomed the Chinese because they claim they bring in critically-needed capital and equipment.

An indigenous small-scale miner said: “The Chinese people bring their equipment, which makes the work easy for us, and they know the work too; but when you are sick they don't pay your hospital bills you, have to use your own money.”

Last month the police arrested 25 Chinese miners said to be working illegally around the village of Wasa, a popular mining community in the Western region.

The association of communities affected by mining says Chinese companies have built networks of local people including miners, local chiefs and security agents to give them cover for illegal mining.

Last year, gold production from the activities of small-scale gold mining from both legal and illegal sources totalled approximately 800,000 ounces, representing 23 percent of the total gold production in the country, available data has shown.

Daniel Owusu-Koranteng of WACAM, a local advocacy group for mining communities and the environment said: “Once the gold price starts rising, that's the motivation.

“People will do anything to extract the gold on the blind side of the law in much-marginalised areas,” he said.

“Illegal mining in Ghana -- whether large or small-scale -- is not acceptable, and the law is clear about that,” Koranteng added.

Impact on Society and Communities

It is clear that the operation of Chinese immigrants in the small-scale mining sector has a national dimension.

However, until recently there was ambivalence on the part of government, NGOs, politicians and local communities in defining and taking a position on the invasion of Chinese immigrants in this sector.

Because they are unregulated and operate outside the law, illegal miners often cause major environmental damage, use mercury for processing and do not conduct reclamation of trenches and pits.

Though the local communities sometimes appreciate the cash-flow that illegal mining may bring, they generally experience increased levels of social and health deficit and disregard for the rule of law.

Some schools of thought argue that illegal mining provides livelihood opportunities for poor people and therefore must be approached as a developmental issue, not only a security problem. This is the challenge that all stakeholders in the sector, government and civil society face.

While on the one hand these activities have bred social, economic, and environmental problems, on the other hand they then to absorb more employment than the formal mining sector and are accessible to the lower strata of the population.

Industry watchers have observed that illegal small-scale mining activities have always resulted in the encroachment on large tracts of communities land, depriving poor and marginalised communities of their land surface rights. This has deprived many communities of their sources of livelihood.

The appropriation of local communities’ land for mining has often engendered social upheavals and adversely impacted on the routine livelihood activities of these communities.

Such social upheavals are commonplace in communities affected by mining projects in the country. The growing incidence of conflict between mining communities and their chiefs on one hand, and the mining companies on the other, echoes the growing concerns about mining sector effects.

Gov’t, stakeholders act now

Stakeholders have urged government security apparatus such as the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Ghana Police Service to intensify their protection and monitoring mechanism on the mining lease-sites belonging to multinational firms to minimise the impact of illegal small-scale mining operations and the activities of the Chinese nationals on the country’s mineral reserves.

Multinational mining companies as a matter of urgency need to improve on their corporate social responsibility programmes in the communities where they operate. Their activities need to be visible and orderly to the appreciation of local inhabitants.