The Ghana Chamber of Mines says government must deploy strategies to combat illegal mining menace affecting mining communities.
The President of the Chamber, Johan Ferreira, made the appeal when he led a six-member delegation from the Chamber of Mines to pay a courtesy call on the Minister of Defense Dr. Benjamin Kunbour.
The visit was to find ways of establishing partnerships between the defense ministry and the chamber which will help improve the nation’s mining industry.
Johan Ferreira explained that government continues to lose significant amounts of tax revenue every year as a result of illegal mining activities which projects a bad image for the entire mining sector and negatively affects the environment.
President of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Johan Ferreira speaking to Citi Business News said Ghana is endowed with minerals particularly gold which ought to be properly harnessed and promised that his outfit would support the Ministry to help address some of the challenges the mining sector is faced with.
He also said the Chamber of Mines is passionate about the environment and that it would ensure that mining companies comply with the rules and regulations in the country which is the best practice anywhere in the world to protect the ecology.
“Because of the fact that Ghana is well endowed with minerals, we as a chamber are really contributing not only to the economy but also to the people of Ghana. Last year we contributed 1.1billion cedis as direct taxes, we subsides fuel, electricity and also employed more than 17,000 people. But we still have some issues with regards to our mining concessions which we need the Defense Ministry to prevent the illegal miners from encroaching on.”
He said the mining sector is a biggest sector that contributes about 68 per cent of Ghana’s revenue although the menace of illegal mining has given a wrong image of the sector.
