The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh has disclosed that government is amending the Minerals and Mining Act to make the punishment given to people engaged in illegal mining more punitive in order to deter others from engaging in the act.
He said the amendments will “enhance the penalties for illegal mining activities in the country.”
Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh made this known at the maiden Brong Ahafo Regional Ghana Journalists Association Awards held over the weekend.
“Judges will not have that discretion but to impose between 15 and 25 [year sentences]. Besides that, you’ll be sentenced to a minimum fine of 150,000 penalty units.”
“The new law plans to explicitly criminalise any aiding and abetting of illegal mining activities… as well as the use of other equipment for mining in water bodies.”
The Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act 900) and the Minerals Commission Act, 1993 (Act 450) are the main enactments setting out the guidelines for mining in Ghana.
The war against illegal mining has seen hundreds of arrests amid calls to make punishment of the crime more stringent.
The government has also placed a ban on the importation of excavators to minimize their proliferation in illegal mining.
The ban, although temporary, is part of measures it is putting in place to sanitize the small-scale mining industry and rid it of illegal miners.
The government also revealed in May that 194 foreign nationals have been deported because of illegal mining.