Promotion of Small-Scale Gold and Diamond Mining in Ghana

Since February 1996 projekt-consult GmbH advises the Small Scale Mining Department of the Minerals Commission on the implementation of a project of German-Ghanaian co-operation on behalf of the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR).

The aim of the project is to increase the contribution of the small scale mining sector to the Ghanaian economy by enabling the small scale miners to improve their operations making them more economically productive, safe and environmentally sound.

The German contribution pursues the systematic qualification of the staff of the Small Scale Mining Department in ques-tions of organisation and management and, in this way, to improve the capacity of the Minerals Commission to deliver demand-oriented services for small scale miners. In a first phase of promotion, implemented from 1990 to 1993 by the GTZ, the work focused on the building-up of decentralised consulting services, the improvement of the legal system for the buying-up of gold and diamonds as well as on the test of simple tools to improve the situation of the miners. Since then, seven operative „district offices“ exist, whose staff offers consulting services for miners of the gold and diamond sector and advises them on questions of legalisation.

In Ghana, a total of about 50.000 small scale miners extracts gold from alluvial, tarkwaian and primary deposits and washes diamonds from placer deposits. The majority of these miners, called „galamsey“, works without a legal title and very often on concession of large mining companies, which increasingly enter into Ghana after the liberalisation of the mining legislation and as a conse-quence of the improved investment climate. As a result, tensions raised between the industrial and the small scale mining, a problem which the project tries to solve. After in 1995 gold has been found in the Upper East Region near Bolgatanga, a new gold fever could be seen to emerge. More than 20.000 people followed the call of the gold, living and working now under precarious social, physical and technical conditions. Meanwhile the project has reacted to these circumstances: An area of 72 km2 was reserved for small scale mining in co-operation with the provincial government and a „district-office“ was opened in Bolgatanga.

During the present promotion phase the company projekt-consult GmbH advises and supports the executing agency in:

• identification and dissemination of appropriate methods and equipment/ tools for mining and mineral con-centration
• co-operation with other institutions and lobbying for the small scale mining
• improvement of the organisational and institutional framework for the small scale mining
• improvement of the access to and conditions for sale of gold and dia-monds within the legal marketing structure
• improvement of the services offered by the „district offices“ in the mining centres and the headoffice in Accra

Practical pilot measures such as the testing of locally fabricated milling facilities, carried out together with the small scale miners, are concentrated in Bolgatanga. The aim is to help the executing agency to make it’s presence felt and to direct the gold fever into the right channels. As for the rest „training of trainers“ is of the most importance. The capacity of the „district officers“ as well as of the technical and administrative staff is increased by courses and on-the-job-training enabling them to execute the many-faceted tasks in the interface between informal sector and government.