Ghana’s long-running battle against illegal mining, widely known as galamsey, will remain an endless cycle of raids, arrests and military deployments unless the country fundamentally changes how it deals with the illegal mining menace.
This is the view of former Power Minister and former legislator, Dr. Kwabena Donkor.
Although the current mining consultant agrees that enforcement and use of some level of force remain necessary, relying solely on brute force will never solve the problem. He justifies that brute force alone ignores the economic realities that drive thousands of Ghanaians into illegal mining in the first place.
Speaking in an interview with veteran journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Dr Donkor said the country’s anti-galamsey strategy must evolve from merely chasing illegal miners to deliberately helping them transition into a legal, regulated, and environmentally responsible mining sector.
Brute Force Has Its Limits
Dr Donkor maintained that the fight against galamsey cannot be reduced to deploying soldiers and police officers. He argued that the real challenge is to rethink Ghana’s entire approach to small-scale mining instead of treating enforcement as the ultimate solution.
By his definition, galamsey is any form of illegal mining, regardless of whether it is carried out by individuals or large corporations. He recalled previously accusing a multinational mining company of engaging in what he described as “gargantuan galamsey” after it allegedly mined without parliamentary ratification.
For him, the objective should not simply be to stop illegal mining, but to transform it into legal mining under strict regulation.
“From where I sit as an individual, the fight against Galamsey must take place within a certain context. It is not just enforcement. You can use brute force, the military, or the police. That will only achieve so much. But the whole concept of mining- how do we turn that concept around?,” he remarked.
Turn Illegal Miners into Legal Operators
Dr Donkor believes the country’s greatest opportunity lies in transitioning illegal miners into legitimate operators rather than permanently pushing them out of the industry.
He noted that Ghana can adopt modern mining technologies already being used in countries such as the Philippines and Chile, where gold is extracted without mercury while achieving better recovery rates.
Such a transition, he argued, should also include stricter environmental standards, ensuring that mining activities are kept away from rivers and other sensitive water bodies.
Rather than seeing illegal miners only as lawbreakers, he suggested that many could become responsible operators if given access to licensing, training, technology, and proper regulation.
“Looking at our small-scale mining, how do we transition the illegal miners into legal mining? For me, that must be at the heart of our fight against Galamsey. If we are able to transition them, and we can transition them by recognising the reality and repositioning that reality, we don’t mine around water bodies,” he noted.
He added, “There are new technologies, Philippines, Chile, other places available that you don’t use mercury to extract gold, and they even get better yields. So, the fight against Galamsey should be one, enforcement of existing rules, and two, rethinking the rules.
Jobs Must Accompany Enforcement
Dr Donkor warned that enforcement alone cannot succeed in an economy grappling with high youth unemployment.
In his view, as long as thousands of young people see illegal mining as their best chance of earning a living, the country will struggle to eliminate galamsey through arrests and military operations alone.
He likened the situation to commercial motorcycle operators, popularly known as okada riders, arguing that lasting solutions require governments to create systems that retrain, license and regulate people operating outside the law rather than simply criminalising them.
“The fight against galamsey should be one, enforcement of existing rules, and two, rethinking the rules,” he stressed.
Although he stopped short of declaring Ghana’s anti-galamsey campaign a failure, Dr Donkor said the country has not yet won the battle either.
“We are somewhere in between,” he said, adding that Ghana must move beyond the optics of policy implementation and develop practical, well-thought-out solutions capable of addressing the root causes of illegal mining.
The RCOMSDEP
Meanwhile, the government has already taken steps in the direction advocated by Dr Donkor through the Responsible Cooperative Mining and Skills Development Programme (rCOMSDEP). The initiative seeks to formalise Ghana’s small-scale mining sector by organising miners into cooperatives, providing technical training, promoting environmentally responsible mining methods and creating pathways for operators to obtain legal licences.
The programme is intended to move miners away from illegal operations and into a regulated system that improves compliance, protects water bodies and forests, and enhances safety and productivity. If effectively implemented and widely adopted, rCOMSDEP could complement enforcement efforts by addressing one of the underlying drivers of galamsey, bringing informal miners into the formal economy rather than leaving them outside the law.
