The Minerals Commission has begun a nationwide clampdown on individuals and companies engaged in the illegal winning of industrial minerals.
The exercise, which involves officials from the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), inspected the compliance with various mining laws and regulations, including Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), Minerals and Mining (Licensing) Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2176), Minerals and Mining (Health, Safety and Technical) Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2182).
The team, which also had officers from the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL), checked compliance with the use of explosives, local content regulations, the validity of restricted mining leases, explosive and environmental permits and the use of the commission's waybill system.
The team further verified whether operators were duly authenticated and up to date with the payment of taxes, royalties, annual mineral rights and other statutory fees.
Inspection
The operation, led by the Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Small Scale Mining and Industrial Minerals, Maxwell Yao Akpene Klu, started at Tsopoli in the Greater Accra Region.
At the Tsopoli site, the team, together with NAIMOS, confronted truck drivers who had sand in their vehicles.
It was observed that although some of the drivers held valid sand waybills from the Minerals Commission, the site from which the sand had been procured was unlicensed.
The operators of excavators at the site were said to have fled into nearby bushes on sighting the team, while the drivers declined to disclose the identity of the site's owners.
The drivers were subsequently handed over to the nearest police station to assist with investigations.
At a quarry site operated by T. T. Quarry Limited, the site supervisor, who gave his name as William Adjah, could not provide incorporation documents to the team.
It was discovered that their restricted mining lease had expired in 2022 with no renewal since then.
The team gave them up to Friday, July 17, 2026, to produce the relevant documents and renew their licence.
Verification
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Mr Klu said preliminary indications suggested that some of the waybills presented by the drivers were likely to be fake.
"We are detecting just from the face of it that some of these are likely to be fake. But we will go to the office with it and then we will confirm whether they are fake," he said.
He added that the commission would subsequently track down those responsible for issuing the fake waybills.
"This is to say that there are people, faceless people who are designing some of these waybills, and instead of it going to government coffers, some people are making money and looting government," he said.
He explained that a legitimate operator was required to pay annual mineral rights and statutory obligations, including ground rent, before the Minerals Commission would issue a permit, in addition to royalties payable to the commission and the Minerals Development Fund (MDF) once operations began.
Mr Klu said the waybill system, which was also meant to generate funds from every truckload of sand and industrial minerals extracted, was being undermined.
"And if you want to go to the bottom of this, you will be amazed at the amount of money that we are losing out via this means," he said.
On sanctions, Mr Klu said the commission's laws provided for severe penalties, adding, "We have severe sanctions within our Act, and the ones that are applicable will be applied".
