President Nana Akuffo- Addo has said that the small scale mining sector is a very important contributor to the nation’s revenue generation efforts.
“According to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), in the past seven years other than in 2014, the mining sector has provided the largest tax receipts. Small scale mining’s contribution to the growth of this sector has been incremental since its regularisation in 1989.”
“Today, small scale mining accounts for some 40% of our gold exports and provides job opportunities and sources of livelihood and income for many Ghanaians,” President Akufo-Addo said.
Speaking at the commissioning of 100 mercury-free processing technologies (Gold Kacha), for small scale mining in Ghana at the Independence Square on 6 June 2022, the President assured stakeholders in the small scale mining sector that his administration is devoted to ensuring clean mining in Ghana.
Additionally, the president stated that “it is also not a secret that the sector has been, unfortunately, a major vehicle of environmental pollution and land degradation including the threat posed to life by the use of mercury in the recovery of gold and its subsequent release into the eco-system”.
However, he noted that his administration’s agenda is to ensure that mining is executed responsibly as was done by the ancestors and to adhere to the international best practices and conventions across all levels of operation.
“This will in addition to eliminating the associated negative practices, ensure that small scale mining supports the government’s drive to optimize the earnings from mining in pursuit of development, progress and prosperity for all Ghanaians,” Akufo-Addo added.
President Akufo-Addo, again said he owes the current and future generation of Ghanaians to ensure that responsible mining prevails in the country to protect water bodies and natural resources.
The Mercury-free mining (Gold Kacha) technologies
The mining technology being rolled out in Ghana’s artisanal, small, medium and large-scale mining can process sand, clay and hard rock. The mining machine design allows for different modules to be added to expand plants as the need arises. This allows miners to gain a return on investment as the miner expands.
The plants are manufactured to specifically remediate mercury-contaminated areas, recovering significant quantities of gold in the process. The mining plants are supplied as fully comprehensive modular solutions from ore through gold ore or bagged mineral concentrates as appropriate without using mercury.
Scrubbing, crushing and milling happen at the same time as the concentrator washes the ore and recovers both fine and coarse gold. The mining plants have an incredible level of efficiency. They have a capacity that ranges from as little as 1.5-3 throughput per hour (3tph) through to 300 throughputs per hour (300tph).
The Kacha mining technology also has a high recovery rate (90%+ gravity recoverable gold) compared with the other methods that recover just about 30-35% of gold.
