The Ghana Chamber of Mines has commissioned a research into occupational hazards in the mining industry aimed at identifying occupational illnesses within the industry and contributory factors.
This is to help implement appropriate measures to prevent and curb accidents as well as help to establish appropriate courses of action in the event of an accident.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr. Tony Aubyn, said this at Tarkwa during the 2013 National Mines First Aid and Safety Week Celebration, under the theme “Safety is Life.”
He said in spite of the excruciating challenges faced by the industry, the mines in Ghana ranked high in terms of safety performance among their peers globally.
He said “internationally accepted standards of health, safety and environmental protection are adhered to by all member companies of the Chamber.”
“Even in these challenging times, safety will not, and must not be sacrificed at the altar of cost-cutting”, he said.
Dr. Aubyn reiterated the unwavering commitment of the mining industry to achieving a socially acceptable balance between mining and safety.
He said the mining sector continued to play an important role in the country’s development and that this was evident in the economic and social contributions the sector had made over the years to the country.
A report by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana indicated that the contribution of gold to total merchandise export earnings from January to August this year was US$ 3.4 billion representing 34.7% of gross merchandise exports and in 2012, the sector contributed over US$ 5 billion, representing 43% of gross merchandise exports.
Dr. Aubyn said these contributions significantly helped the stabilization of the cedi against other currencies as well as the country’s balance of payment.
In a speech delivered on his behalf by Mr. Simon Atebiya, the Technical Director for Mines at the Ministry for Lands and Natural Resources, the sector minister, Mr. Alhaji Inusah Fuseini said safety was a key requirement in the extractive industry which must be adhered to, given the risky nature of the industry’s operations.
Mr. Fuseini hinted that the ministry would roll out an intensive safety campaign to complement the effort of the mining companies to ensure that workplace incidents in the industry were reduced to the barest minimum.
He briefly expressed government’s concern on the falling prices of gold as well as increasing illegal mining, saying, “illegal miners invade the land, pollute our water bodies and put the environment at risk.”
He said government was not against small scale mining instead, it was against illegal mining.