The government is planning to establish permanent military camps along selected rivers to prevent illegal miners from returning to affected areas, as it pushes back against criticism that its campaign against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, has weakened.
The proposed camps are expected to maintain a sustained security presence along vulnerable river bodies, where illegal mining activities continue to pose threats to water resources and the environment.
The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Dr Yusif Sulemana, said the government intended to make provision for the camps in the 2027 national budget to support the continued deployment of military personnel.
“Today, as I speak to you, we are putting permanent military men at some riverside to ensure that our young men and women who are on the river bodies mining are not able to do that,” he said.
Beyond enforcement, the government is pursuing cooperative mining arrangements to provide small-scale miners with regulated alternatives to illegal operations in forest reserves and along water bodies.
Authorities are targeting the registration of close to 100 small-scale mining cooperatives by the end of 2026. Plans are also underway to establish gold processing centres aimed at improving recovery rates and reducing miners’ reliance on mercury and cyanide.
Dr Sulemana outlined the measures in an interview with Channel One TV on the sidelines of the Mining in Motion Summit in Accra, citing the seizure of excavators and changfans, as well as operations to protect rivers and forest reserves, as evidence that the government’s anti-galamsey campaign remains active.
He rejected suggestions that the government had eased its efforts to combat illegal mining, maintaining that enforcement operations and the formalisation of small-scale mining were central to its approach.