A delegation from the UK-Ghana Gold Programme (UKGGP) and the British High Commission has visited an Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining site (ASGM) at Dakrupe, a community in the Bole District of the Savannah Region. The delegation also held a round-table interaction with miners and relevant stakeholders at Bole. Challenges facing miners, licensing and formalisation issues as well as the way foward to providing support for the Bole District Security Council and the District Mining Committee (DMC) were discussed. The meeting was attended by officials from the Minerals Commission, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), security personnel, miners and traditional authorities. Mr Chris Aston, Team Leader of UKGGP, during the engagement, said it was to generate constructive and practical solutions to help ensure that gold mining practices were sustainable, safe and beneficial to the local communities. He said the UKGGP was helping the District Mining Committee and the District Security Council to improve th eir monitoring and law enforcement of the illegal gold mining sites. He stated that the formalisation of small-scale mining was a pressing issue in the Bole District, emphasising that it was the only way artisanal small-scale gold mining could be protected from exploitation and vulnerability. He outlined several key initiatives aimed at improving the formalisation of small-scale mining in the Bole District detailing ongoing efforts to integrate local gold traders into formal associations to enhance the due diligence processes of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company. Mr Aston highlighted collaborative efforts with relevant authorities at local and national levels to tackle gold smuggling and illicit financial flows related to gold. He mentioned that the UKGGP advocated for reforms that could positively impact the sector. He urged the government to commit to establishing lines of credit for miners to reduce their reliance on foreign funding sources and push for legal reforms, specifically converting wit hholding tax into a mining royalty that would be allocated to communities and district assemblies. He said, 'This will provide resources to tackle illegal mining, ensure mining operations are licensed, protect the environment and safeguard the health of miners and surrounding communities.' Dr Steve Manteaw, Technical Adviser at the UKGGP, expressed concerns about Ghana's approach to maximising value from its mineral resources compared to other countries that had optimised resource extraction. He said countries retained significant value within their national economies by investing in resource sectors, adding there was a vacuum filled by foreign investors in Ghana. He recommended a cost-benefit analysis of mining in Ghana pointing out that while the country had revenue from gold exports, it overlooked the environmental degradation and displacement caused by illegal mining activities. Gilbert Seidu Iddi, Chief of Mandari in the Bole Traditional Area, stated that mining in the district faced significant cha llenges until the intervention of the UKGGP, which helped identify and address some issues. He said in spite of that there were still issues to resolve to legitimise small scale mining and expressed worry that mining communities, though seated on wealth, were poor due to their inability to harness their resources. He called for collaboration between government, all stakeholders and the communities to identify lapses in the mining sectors and finding sustainable solutions to them. The UKGGP collaborates with the Government of Ghana to ensure that artisanal small-scale gold mining is effectively regulated and regulations are properly enforced. It aims to harness the full potential of artisanal small-scale gold mining to benefit Ghanaians while preventing environmental damage and protecting the health of miners. Source: Ghana News Agency