Businessman urges Gov’t to re-frame laws on small-scale mining
Mr Bernard Antwi Boasiako, Chief Executive Officer of HANSOL Mining Company, on Tuesday said there was the need re-frame the law governing small-scale mining in Ghana to sustain the business.
He said Parliament needed to look at that law again and make it flexible for foreigners to invest directly into the business to work under local partners.
Mr Antwi Boasiako told the GNA in an interview that Ghanaians did not have the capital to invest in heavy equipment for refilling the lands during the dry season and would need external support as is done in big mining companies.
He said one needs between $300,000 and $600,000 to start small-scale mining in Ghana and because of its risk factor, no financial institution is interested in doing business with them because they could not provide the required collateral.
“The law currently reserves small-scale mining to only Ghanaians but for now the ideal thing is for the law to be restructured to enable small-scale mining companies go for such assistance to assist them to refill the land,” he said.
He said there are about 68 mining companies operating in Ghana and HANSOL Mining is the only Ghanaian owned and all of these companies use Foreign Service Support in form of servicing and maintaining the equipment that they have invested their monies.
Mr Antwi Boasiako, who was the Chairman of Ghana-china Business Chamber of Commerce, said “it is about time we rethink about our laws to look for investors who will come and work under their Ghanaian partners as service support or allow them to invest in the equipment to facilitate refilling of the land”.
Earlier, Community Rights Foundation (CRIF), a civil society organization, called on the government to give protection to HANSOL Mining, the only wholly Ghanaian owned mining company and its Chinese service support to forestall a possible collapse.
A statement issued by Executive Director, Mr Edward Kwasi Akuoko on Tuesday and copied to the GNA, accused some state institutions including the National Security and Ghana Immigration Service of being bias towards the company.
The statement said that bias action was threatening the operations and survival of the only Ghanaian mining company in the country and called on the government to intervene.
According to the statement, a recent study conducted by CRIF on the operations of mining companies in the country has shown a huge bias on the part of state institutions especially the security wing, against the Ghanaian company as compared to the other wholly or partially foreign owned mining companies.
It cited the constant harassment of legally working Chinese nationals who provide support service in the area of affordable and cheap equipment technology and maintenance for the company as a very unfortunate development and called for immediate action from the government.
The statement, however, commended government’s swift response to a petition send to the presidency by Ghana China Business Chamber of Commerce (GCBCC) of which HANSOL was a member, appealing to the President to deal swiftly with concerns raised so as to engender business confidence.
Source: GNA