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Mines Chamber calls for revenue laws

The Ghana Chamber of Mines has urged government to pass a law for the mining industry similar to the Petroleum Revenue Management Act to provide clarity on how the funds are utilized.

It said such a law would also help promote good governance and prudent management of revenue from the sector.

Occasion

The CEO of the Chamber, Mr Sulemanu Koney, made the appeal at this year’s National Inter-Mines First Aid and Safety competition hosted by Perseus Mining Ghana Limited at Denkyira Gyaman, a suburb of Ayanfuri in the Upper Denkyira District of the Central region.

Competitors

Four mining companies - Perseus, Chirano Gold, Goldfields Ghana-Tarkwa, and Goldfields Star Wassa as well as four communities – Perseus; Ghana Manganese company, Nsuta; Newmont Ahafo and Newmont Akyem are competing in this exercise.

The oral and practical competition under the theme ‘Safety, Our way of life’ was won by Chirano while Perseus won the community competition.

Contribution of mines

While calling for the enactment of the law, Mr Koney applauded the sector for accounting for one-third of foreign exchange receipts in 2015 and thereby making it the country’s largest source of forex earnings.

In nominal terms, the realized mineral revenue reported by the producing member companies of the Chamber was $ 3.1 billion.

Out of it, 85 per cent was returned into the country which was four fold more than the statutory repatriation requirement by the Bank of Ghana.

The amount represents 13 per cent increase over the 2014 figure.

Mr Koney said such inflows have helped largely to facilitate the achievement of the monetary policy goals of the Central Bank; that is to attain price stability and foster economic growth.

He also announced that the fiscal contribution by the mining sector increased from GH¢1.24 billion in 2014 to GH¢1.35 billion in 2015 representing a growth of 8.8 per cent.

Incidents

The CEO of the Chamber said incidents recorded in the mining industry have reduced relative to the preceding years. In 2012, it decreased from 11 to five in 2015 while serious accidents dropped from 72 to 16 over the same period.

Perseus

The Acting Manager of Perseus Mining, Mr Stephen Ndede said the company was implementing a number of health and safety interventions both at the work place and within the catchment communities to ensure ‘zero tolerance for accidents.’

The measures include safety talks and comprehensive risk management plans at the work place, road safety education in communities and building of CHPS compounds in the communities.

The deputy minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Kwabena Mintah-Akando urged illegal mining operators to regularize their operations and form cooperatives to take advantage of government’s decision to streamline their operations.

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