Ing. Gomashie Challenges Sammy Gyamfi’s Defence of Unlicensed ASM Mining

Mining engineer and natural resources policy strategist Ing. Wisdom Edem Gomashie has strongly challenged Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) Chief Executive Officer Sammy Gyamfi’s defence of his comments on unlicensed artisanal and small-scale mining, arguing that the position risks encouraging illegal mining and undermining the statutory authority of the Minerals Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. In a strongly worded response, Ing. Gomashie maintains that mining without a licence remains illegal regardless of whether the activity pollutes water bodies or degrades forest reserves, citing provisions of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), which require the appropriate mineral rights and licences before mining operations can lawfully commence.

Read the full challenge by Ing Gomashie below:

GOVERNMENT’s DIRECTIVE ENCOURAGING ALL MINERS TO MINE WITH OR WITHOUT LICENSES

Dear Sammy Gyamfi

Please do not try to deny that you told miners to go and mine without a licence.

This goes to you based on your attempted defense..

1. Unlicensed mining remains unlicensed mining, regardless of the scale, and must not be termed only as unlicensed ASM.
2. Illegal mining should not be limited to unlicensed ASM, as operators can engage in illegal mining beyond the 25.2-acre limit applicable to small-scale mining. Your statement risks emboldening both unlicensed ASM operators and other mining operators to undertake unauthorised mining, thereby making illegal mining more widespread across Ghana.
3. In stating the three (3) forms of unlicensed ASM operations deemed wrong, you forgot to add a fourth point, which is: “SAMMY GYAMFI AUTHORISING MINERS TO MINE ANYWHERE, WITH OR WITHOUT A LICENCE.”
4. Your statement, which constitutes the fourth point, emboldens all three forms you have outlined. You are aiding and abetting illegal mining across Ghana, with the potential to encourage perpetrators to do more of it.
5. Your assertion that someone undertaking mining without polluting water bodies or degrading forest reserves meets the eligibility requirements for formalisation is not just a fallacy; it also raises questions about whether you have compliance officers advised you before the release of this statement and whether you chose to disregard their advice. This defence is not just empty; it is a senseless assertion in the drive towards ASM formalisation.
6. For your information, in line with section 89 of Act 703, where it is in the public interest to encourage small-scale mining in an area, the Minister, in consultation with the Minerals Commission, must designate that area for small-scale mining operations by notice in the Gazette. What authority do you have, as GoldBod CEO, to sidestep the relevant provisions of the law and introduce new rules?
7. It is hogwash to assume that, because an area is not a forest reserve or a water body, people can mine anywhere without recourse to the law. That is even the easiest pathway towards mining in water bodies and forest reserves. Everything clearly shows that this is a government policy.
8. Also, basic knowledge in resource governance in practice & literature dictates that licensing of ASMs is the first step in any ASM formalisation pathway, not the other way round. It sounds strange to ask people to mine without a licence as a step towards formalisation. How can you claim to have good plans for miners to access the legal documentation required for their operations while preceding that process with an instruction to mine without a licence? How did we get here as a country?
9. For your information, are you aware that, in furtherance of section 9(1) of Act 703, “Despite a right or title which a person may have to land in, upon or under which minerals are situated, a person shall not conduct activities over the land in Ghana for search, reconnaissance, prospecting, exploration, or mining for a mineral unless the person has been granted a mineral right in accordance with the Act”?
10. Are you also aware that a person shall not engage in or undertake a small-scale mining operation for a mineral unless there is a licence in existence for that mining operation, granted by the Minister responsible for Mines, in line with section 82(1) of Act 703? Sammy Gyamfi, on what authority are you basing your declaration of a pathway to ASM formalisation without recourse to the law?
11. Are you seeking to undermine the authority and mandate of the Minerals Commission and the Minister responsible for Mines?
12. For your learning, the ASM formalisation you are talking about under rCOMSDEP started under the previous administration through its Community Mining Schemes. For your information, that framework is to be legally anchored on sections 81 to 99 of Act 703 and the tributer system in accordance with regulations 493–506 of the Minerals and Mining (Health, Safety and Technical) Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2182). So, what are you talking about? Can you respectfully shut up and apologise to Ghanaians for the unfortunate statement and possibly resign for aiding and promoting illegal mining?
13. You should know that your mandate does not include the regulation of the mining sector in Ghana and that you have no right to define what ASM formalisation is, although your agency can collaborate.
14. You have assumed a posture that not only promotes illegal mining in Ghana but also strategically undermines the efforts and mandate of the Minerals Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, even though all of you are blinded in this directionless policy approach as a government.

You should be resigning by now…..