Ghana's mining legislation: An overview of how the small-scale and large-scale mining environment-related regulations...

Ghana's Minerals Commission (Mincom), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Water Resources Commission (WRC) oversee Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) and Large-scale Mining (LSM) activities in Ghana. Nevertheless, ASM is frequently criticised for various environmental problems. Despite numerous publications on Ghana's ASM and LSM sectors, none have compared their environmental laws to identify regulatory gaps. Consequently, stakeholders find it difficult to address the rising water pollution caused by ASM activities. This study identified regulatory gaps in key environmental laws enforced by the Minerals Commission, the EPA, the WRC, and Local Government. Field investigations examined how specific issues such as qualifications, foreign involvement, and effluent management align with Ghana's directives for small-scale mining. The study involved 52 ASM sites and 133 individuals across four mining communities. The identified regulatory gaps include lenient ASM legislation, poor coordination among regulatory agencies in licensing, and failure to implement anticipatory ASM regulations. The authors recommend that: 1) Ghana's ASM operations should be reclassified through an amendment, 2) regulations should be revised to require environmental impact assessments (EIA), reclamation plans, and the posting of reclamation bonds by ASM firms, and 3) regulatory agencies should adopt a single-window system for processing ASM licences, where applications for mining licences, environmental permits, and water rights are submitted together for joint and simultaneous review and approval.