Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah
THE WESTERN Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, has called on mining companies operating in the Western Region to help develop the communities in which they carry out their operations.
“We need to have our towns and communities where gold is mined developed into cites comparable to Johannesburg in South Africa in order to truly reflect the value of gold in those localities,” he explained.
He admitted that there were still challenges in dealing with the menace of illegal mining also called ‘galamsey’ in the region and called for workable solutions from all stakeholders to stamp out the menace and restore devastated lands and water bodies.
The Regional Minister was speaking at the maiden “Ghana Gold Expo” organized in Takoradi.
The three days event was on the theme “promoting responsible Gold in Africa, zero mercury”. The event was collaboration between Aurum Monaco and the Western Regional Coordinating Council.
It was a strategic initiative which sought to create a synergy among stakeholders as well as provided appropriate framework to bring transparency in the gold trade across the globe.
The event was used to discuss the environmental impact of both large and small scale mining with a view to abolishing the use of mercury in gold mining and providing support to small-scale and artisanal miners.
The participants included companies, business executives and individuals whose preoccupations bothered on large and small scale mining; mineral processing; mine site development; mining exploration and environmental management among others.
He said adopting the initiative for zero mercury in mining was a good move not only for the Western Region, which had the largest gold deposit in Ghana, but also to help sustain the entire gold industry and the environment for future generations.
He noted that the maiden event gave small scale miners the right exposure to build networks for technical and financial support.
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, noted that as a leading gold producer globally, Ghana recognized the need to promote green technology in the extraction of gold.
“The government is working at ensuring that the country’s gold supply is derived from responsible mining processes including elimination of mercury contamination from our mining processes,” he said.
He also added that Ghana had signed onto the Minamata Convention, which had an objective to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and mercury releases from all forms of mining.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi