GHANA’S cabinet has approved amendments to the country’s mining law for submission to parliament, Mines Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah said in a Reuters report. The proposed legislative changes are part of a broader push to tighten oversight of the sector and clamp down on illegal mining, the newswire reported.
Ghana. Africa’s top gold producer, has been rolling out reforms this year aimed at boosting state revenue and expanding local participation in its mineral wealth. These reforms include a sliding-scale gold royalty regime tied to prices and the phase-out of fiscal stability agreements – a development that could affect major miners such as Newmont, Gold Fields, AngloGold Ashanti, Zijin and Perseus Mining.
Buah told a news conference in Accra that Ghana’s Minerals and Mining Act, in force for nearly two decades, needs updating to provide a coherent, forward-looking legal framework. He said the reforms aim to strengthen local content and domestic value addition, improve links to manufacturing, and tackle illegal mining and environmental damage.
According to Reuters, the proposed law would establish district mining committees to give host communities input early in the licensing process, and replace reconnaissance and prospecting licences with a single exploration licence capped at five years, with extensions dependent on review of an initial two-year work programme. Buah said the change targets speculators sitting on unused licences.
Mining leases would remain capped at 20 years, but companies would now need to negotiate separate community development agreements directly with host communities, rather than setting terms unilaterally.
