Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey, has called for stronger prosecution of illegal miners, warning that arrests alone will not solve the country’s persistent galamsey crisis.
Speaking on Good Afternoon Ghana on Metro TV on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, he said while security agencies have made arrests, the lack of successful prosecutions remains a major weakness in the fight against illegal mining.
“I think that we need to commend NIMAS for the work that NIMAS has been doing. The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources has been driving that and the President has shown dedication,” he said.
However, Ashigbey stressed that enforcement must go beyond arrests.
“The issue about prosecution for me is the sad bit about it. We still are not doing what we need to do as far as prosecution is concerned,” he said.
He questioned how many of those arrested have actually been convicted.
“The Chief Justice gave us specialised courts. Metro, we are waiting for you to go and tell us the number of people that His Excellency mentioned that have been arrested. How many of those have successfully been prosecuted?” he asked.
Ashigbey also called for action against individuals within local government structures who are allegedly facilitating illegal mining activities.
According to him, some District Chief Executives have been implicated in issuing permits for illegal operations.
“There are some DCEs that some of your colleague media houses have exposed. If you take the Tano North, he is signing prospecting licences for people within his community, which is illegal,” he said.
He explained that prospecting licences can only be issued by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources.
“You have a DCE in one of the Manso communities who is giving chamfi operators permits and collecting money from them,” he added.
Ashigbey said investigations may be ongoing but insisted that officials implicated in such activities should be interdicted while probes continue.
“As a coalition we have been calling for interdiction. That has not happened,” he said.
He also raised concern about a new environmental risk emerging from illegal mining operations involving the use of cyanide.
According to him, some small-scale miners have begun bringing foreign nationals, particularly from Burkina Faso, to assist with unregulated cyanide processing.
“There is one new risk that has come up, a very major risk. The fact that now you have small-scale miners bringing people from Burkina Faso and they are playing with cyanide,” he said.
He warned that unlike large-scale mining companies that operate under the supervision of the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), these illegal operations lack any safety controls.
“They are not like the large-scale mines who would work under the control of the Minerals Commission and the EPA to make sure that this cyanidation is done well,” he said.
Ashigbey cited a recent incident where dangerous cyanide levels were detected in a borehole near an illegal mining site.
“If it was not for the fact that the pump on the borehole had broken down, if they had fixed it, that whole community would have been wiped out,” he said.
He therefore called on national security agencies to urgently address the growing threat.
“The issues around cyanidation and especially the Burkina Faso nationals who are coming into our country… they should not be allowed to be doing this,” he said.
