Centre to promote legal and sustainable small-scale mining in Africa launched

The Africa Centre for Minerals, Mining and Sustainable Development (ACMMSD), a Centre with the purpose of promoting legal and sustainable mining – especially small-scale mining of minerals in Ghana – has been launched in Accra.

In a press release to mark the launch, Executive Secretary of the Centre, Edwin Letsa K. Kpedor, underscored its importance to ensuring stakeholders in the extractive sector understand and adopt sustainable means in the mining of minerals to guarantee our environment is protected, preserved and re-claimed following successful small-scale mining activities.

“In our communities today, we are experiencing the negative effects of illegal and unsustainable mining practices on our water-bodies, forests, farms and communities. Therefore, the Centre’s focus is to support stakeholders engaged in the regulation, supervision and small-scale mining of minerals to adopt new sustainable practices which ensure we reverse the current trends of environmental degradation, water-bodies pollution and forest destruction as being witnessed across our mining communities.”

He further noted that the Centre’s role will be to “coordinate the practical implementation of legal and sustainable mining solutions; and consolidate interventions that seek to promote sustainable livelihoods, particularly for women and young people in the mining communities across Ghana”.

The release further noted that the Centre is committed to harnessing resources to drive regulation and supervision, advocacy, training, support and stakeholder engagements across the various mining communities – especially in the Ashanti, Eastern, Central and West-North Regions of Ghana.

“Our initial assessment of the small-scale mining regime across the country revealed these regions are the hotspots for illegal (galamsey) and unsustainable mining practices, and we seek to prioritise our activities in these regions,” Mr. Kpedor noted.

Commenting on the Centre’s planned activities, Richard Nunekpeku, Director for Programmes and Projects, noted that: “The Centre will provide direct training and capacity building to key stakeholders – such as small-scale miners, traditional authorities, officers of district assemblies and related service providers – to improve their knowledge of using legal and sustainable mining practices”.

Additionally, the Centre will undertake research and publication, advocacy, engage in policy formulation, and provide technical and financial support programmes to small-scale miners in its operational communities.

“Our approach will be to provide comprehensive support services which will help stakeholders commit fully to the adoption of sustainable practices that deliver results. We recognise the need to facilitate the availability of legal, regulatory, training, land management, mining and sustainable community development support programmes, and we are committed to doing these as part of our engagement programmes and initiatives,” Mr. Nunekpeku said.

The Centre’s office is at Dzorwulu, Accra.