The President who made the remarks at this year’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) to Parlia­ment expressed the government’s commitment to continue the fight against illegal mining using improved technology and with the support of the security agencies.

The government, he said, was not against mining; however, it was deter­mined to promote responsible small-scale mining through the ongoing Community Mining Schemes and use of technology.

He said 16 of the Community Schemes had been commissioned and that three more would be commis­sioned by the end of the year.

The President said the Community Mining Schemes were supported with the GoldKacha technology, which was equipment designed to help small-scale miners to extract gold from the ore without the use of toxic mercury.

The technology has the capacity to process sand, clay and hard rock and the modular nature of the mining machine design, allows for different modules to be added to expand the plants as the need arises.

The equipment introduced by a Ghanaian trading and logistics com­pany, Commodity Monitor Limited, allows miners to gain a return on investment as the mine expands; the facility was made to specifically reme­diate mercury contaminated degraded lands, and recover significant quanti­ties of gold in the process up to about 95 per cent compared with the crude method that allows miners to get just about 35 per cent of their gold.

The technology helps artisanal and small scale miners to achieve three basic goals: (1) high tonnes per hour processing (2) no mercury use and (3) high gold recovery.

When contacted, the Chief Ex­ecutive of the Commodity Monitor, Mr Stephen Yeboah, expressed his readiness to make the equipment avail­able which follows a well-structured acquisition process.

• Mr Yeboah

“We at the Community Monitor are of the view that in our fight to bolster illegal mining, which has become a national canker and raised serious concerns about pollution of rivers in mining areas, we need to apply technology, to promote sustainable mining,” he said.

He said with a new mineral pro­cessing technology introduced by a Ghanaian company “Our technology ensures a cleaner gold mining and ex­traction process that prevents the use of mercury and tailings being directed off into water-bodies and mounting machinery, such as Changfas, in the rivers,” Mr Yeboah said.

The GoldKacha he mentioned can­not be mounted on river bodies, uses less water, “in addition to that we pro­vide all the accessories the small scale needs to ensure that it is done well.

He further, explained that the mining plants are supplied as fully comprehensive modular solutions from ore through gold ore or bagged mineral concentrates, as appropriate, without using toxic mercury.

“The machines improve the op­erations of miners in terms of high productivity and ensure superior gold recovery,” the CEO said.

Mr Yeboah said the company is happy partnering with the government through various sector agencies to en­sure responsible and environmentally acceptable mining activities.