Researchers have called on the government to empower, resource and give metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) the mandate to oversee activities of small-scale mining in the country.
This follows a study which established that regulators such as the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) lacked the local data and capacity to monitor hundreds of scattered mining sites continuously.
The researchers, made up of professors from Ghana and Canada, as well as others in civil society, said a mandate to the MMDAs to monitor and report on all mining activities in their districts, with training and a reliable budget, could help to deal with the scourge of illegal mining, commonly called galamsey locally.
They pointed out that district assemblies were the only state institutions that had a daily presence in mining communities, with the local knowledge and authority over land use needed to oversee mining site by site.
The research team comprised the lead researcher, Dr John Boakye-Danquah of the University of Saskatchewan and Globe and Systems Consulting; Professor Yaw Agyemang Boafo of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies (C3SS) of the University of Ghana; Dr Felicitas Egunyu of the University of Waterloo, Canada; and Barrister Mfah Amadu of SysGlo Ghana Limited.
The study by Globe and Systems Consulting (Canada) and SysGlo Consulting (Ghana), in partnership with the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies (CCCSS) of the University of Ghana, stressed the need to make District Mining Committees (DMCs) functional, with clear terms of reference, their own budgets, regular meetings and quarterly reporting to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and Parliament.
It also called for district registers of all mining linked to the government's Responsible Cooperative Mining and Skills Development Programme (RCOMSDEP) to form the foundation of a national gold traceability system to help the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) to confirm that the gold it buys comes from known, responsible sources.
Context
The research team made those recommendations after reviewing hundreds of media reports and policy statements and interviewing officials in selected mining districts between May and September 2026.
The study builds on the “Beyond the Crackdown” policy dialogue held in Accra on March 26, 2026 which advocated a greater role for assemblies in governing small-scale mining.
Government policy is already moving towards decentralising small-scale licensing to the district level.
Since 2025, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has said that small-scale licensing would start at the district level, while the Minerals Commission has given DMCs a mandatory role in reviewing licence applications.
The Minerals and Mining Bill, 2026, now before Parliament, will make those committees statutory bodies.
Key findings
The study established that regulators such as the Minerals Commission and the EPA lacked the local data and capacity to monitor hundreds of scattered mining sites continuously.
It also found that while MMDAs already monitored mining sites, responded to complaints, led enforcement and reclaimed degraded sites, they did so informally, without budgets or common standards, and with results that depended on individual leaders.
Again, the study found that almost all DMCs became dormant after inauguration, with no budget, defined powers or reporting duty.
“Districts bear the costs of mining such as polluted water, damaged roads and reclamation, but receive little benefit, and cannot lawfully charge unlicensed miners,” the researchers stated.
The review also found allegations of complicity, irregular fee collection, political interference and inconsistent enforcement in some districts.
“With no common standards, budgets or public performance data, there is no reliable way to tell good performing districts from poor performing districts,” the researchers stated.
Way forward
Explaining the implications of the study to the Daily Graphic, Prof. Boafo said the focus of the government should be to bring small-scale mining into a responsible, regulated system in every district, while firmly stopping destructive mining in rivers, forests and other no-go areas.
"Moving licensing to the districts without common standards and public reporting risks moving the problem closer to the ground," he said.
Touching further on the research, Prof. Boafo said MMDAs needed to record every mining operation, licensed or not, in a district register shared with the Minerals Commission and other national agencies, with clear deadlines for operators to formalise.
He said it was important to support MMDAs to map and publicly identify mining hot spots and areas closed to mining, including water bodies, forest reserves, buffer zones, farmlands and sacred groves, as well as areas suitable for mining, where miners should be supported to work responsibly.
“The Minerals Commission, EPA, Water Resources Commission and Forestry Commission should be encouraged, and where necessary, to work closely with assemblies through joint planning, information sharing, joint site inspections, named contact persons, and clear channels for referrals and feedback,” he added.
For his part, Dr Boakye-Danquah said the assemblies were best placed to lead the process of making small-scale mining less destructive because they were closer to where the mining sites were.
"Mining is local, so the lead in enforcement should also be local.
That is the governance fit Ghana needs but currently lacks," he said.
He observed that with research estimating that more than 85 per cent of small-scale mining operated outside the licensing system, enforcement alone had not solved the problem.
“The goal should be to bring small-scale mining into a responsible, regulated system in every district, while firmly stopping destructive mining in rivers, forests and other no-go areas.
That means putting district assemblies at the forefront, because the current regulatory agencies do not have the capacity and the structures to oversee small-scale mining site by site,” Dr Boakye-Danquah said.
