Global Business Consultant and Professorial Chair of Sustainability in Business at the University of Surrey, Gavin Hilson has intimated that policy failure and lack of responsive legal mechanisms in the mining sector in majority of African countries is the causal factor of unregulated mining on the continent.
The revelation comes on the back of the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa at the University which held a two day Conference on Sustainability In West Africa’s Mining Sectors ; Political Trends, Popular Struggles ,and Sustainable Futures from November 27- November 28,2024.
The well attended event which drew participation from policy makers , academics , researchers and students alike to brainstorm on the ever changing dynamics in the mining sector on the continent and how to craft policies which identify existing gaps to create a congenial atmosphere for responsible mining of resources where all stakeholders are satisfied and the sanctity of the environment is protected by law and practice.
Speaking at the event as Keynote Speaker , Professor Gavin Hilson stated that the lack or absence of a definitive and authoritative policy framework which truly defines the boundaries of large scale mining and small scale mining in most countries in Africa , creates the loophole for the encroachment of unregulated artisanal miners into concessions , where they do not have the technological knowhow to exploit.
He called for state actors and regulators to do more research into how concessions are given out to large multinational companies to mine and the efficient use of the licensing regimes to create a win win situation between the multimillion dollar mining companies owned by expatriates and the local small scale mining companies which exist in the catchment areas of the big concessions.
” The main reasons why African governments and regulators in the mining sector mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa fail to tackle unregulated mining head on is that , there is a technical gap on how to prepare concessions for large scale mining and create ecosystems for small scale legal miners to share resources with big dollar foreign companies which will create a win win situation for all given my experience as a mining business consultant in Africa . Most often than not, the bigger companies will not be interested in alluvial gold deposits or mineral deposits in their concessions , given the high grade equipments they use and the deep shaft mining practices employed to extract the large scale commercial deposits for their operations.
In other alternative methods, the local small scale companies are just interested in the alluvial deposits that are caught up in the catchment areas of large scale mining companies and not the mainstream minerals like the news portals report or the reports that regulators use to flush out the local miners.
It is about time to be a bit innovative in terms of minerals licensing regimes, to be able to use on field research and data to engage both the large scale miners and low budget local entities to agree to co exist in the same concessions but within stipulated guidelines for the effective utilizations of all mineral deposits in the allocated concessions , which , in turn create sustainable jobs and generative consistent levels of revenue for all actors to facilitate economic development across board in my humble opinion, solves the dangers of unregulated small scale mining and its resultant hazards “.
Also, Professor Hilson further added that to encourage such small scale miners who are mostly referred to as galamseyers in native parlance , to adopt formalized structures and register their businesses in government’s books , there must be well defined processes and transparent activities in the regulation regimes to attract such economic entities.
He added that bureaucracy and sometimes alleged corruption in getting required licenses for legal mining activities push the small scale miners who might not be too financially sound into cutting corners just to make ends meet and provide sustainable incomes for their communities and dependants.
” In any civilized society , businesses will like to get formal registration documents which can protect their commercial interests and facilitate their activities , but in my experience particularly in the West African sub- region like in Ghana, Burkina Faso and the likes , the public outfits which are mandated to provide such mining leases and licences are caught up in red tapism and bureaucracy which frustrates the genuine interests of these small scale entities that are financially handicapped as opposed to their multinational , multibillion dollar competitors.
African governments must get well thought through procedures and corruption free processes imbibed in their licensing regimes so as to incentivise the local mining businesses to push forward to get onto official databases which can generate consistent revenues to state coffers, which will translate into better socio-economic development for such locations which host the mining concessions and reduce the over population of illegal miners that threaten the sanctity of the environment for future generations”.
Gavin is a leading global authority on the environmental and social impacts of the small-scale mining sector. He has published over 300 journal articles, book chapters and reports on the subject, his specialist knowledge widely recognized internationally. He has delivered talks on small-scale mining at United Nations headquarters in New York, the World Bank in Washington DC and several universities worldwide. He has also provided consultancy services on the subject for a range of organizations: the UK Department for International Development, World Bank and EGMONT
The workshop aimed to unite different actors from academia, business, civil society and politics to discuss the various meanings and dimensions of sustainability in/of the global mineral production system with a focus on gold mining in West Africa. It also invites a broader public to participate in discussions on the sustainable governance of large- and small-scale mining in Ghana, on the African continent and beyond.
Intended Outcomes
A cross-disciplinary and transnational lens will allow participants to exchange on current political questions of land and mineral governance in Africa. It departs from the idea that we cannot expect to transform mining economies and contexts without understanding them. Thematically and conceptually, the aim is thus to achieve a better understanding of what sustainability (e.g., in the sense of sustainable economies and ecosystems) may mean for different African actors and societies. Questions of how to achieve (more) ‘just’ sustainability transformations globally will be addressed, and potential pathways to make mining practices more sustainable on national and local levels identified.
This conference is being organized by MIASA’s Interdisciplinary Fellow Group (IFG 11), which investigates the multiple dimensions of sustainability in contexts of large and small-scale mining in West Africa. The interdisciplinary research team aims to document the initiatives and experiences of institutions in designing and implementing sustainability agendas in mining. The members are also interested in understanding policy frameworks around sustainable finance, forest reserves, water bodies and community mining initiatives in Ghana and Burkina Faso. In addition to gold, research is being conducted on the emerging policy frameworks on the extraction of lithium, as well as sustainability policy experience with salt mining. The team consists of:
Prof John Kusimi, Co-Convenor, University of Ghana
Dr Diana Ayeh, Co-Convenor, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Germany
Prof Emanuel Ofosu-Mensah, University of Ghana
Dr Tongnoma Zongo, Member, Institut des Sciences des Sociétés (INSS), Burkina Faso
Dr Hibist Kassa, Member, University of Leicester, United Kingdom.
