President Akufo-Addo commissions 100 Mercury-Free mineral Processing technologies
At a colorful ceremony on Monday, 6th June 2022, His Excellency the President , Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned One Hundred (100) Mercury-Free Mineral Processing Plants (Gold Kacha) for Artisanal and Small-scale Miners.
In the past years, the uncontrolled use and exposure to mercury in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a major but largely neglected global health problem and has also become a threat to Ghana’s forest resources and natural landscapes.
To turn this negative state of affairs around, the Government of his Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has introduced many policy measures in the mining industry, one of these is the Community mining scheme which is a safer, legal and more sustainable alternative to illegal mining.
Another intervention is the introduction of efficient and cleaner technologies, which is at present the best solution for developing environmentally acceptable Small-scale mining activities.
The mercury-free mining equipment efficiently recovers more gold for artisanal and small-scale miners in Ghana without using any chemical like mercury and without polluting river bodies.
The objective of the roll-out of the Gold Katcha is to assist small and large scale miners with efficient mining plants and equipment that achieve three basic goals and these are high tonnes per hour processing, mercury-free recovery and high gold recovery.
Another key objective of this plant is to specifically remedy mercury contaminated areas and recovering high rate of 90% plus gravity recoverable gold.
In 2017, Ghana ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury to reduce and eliminate mercury use in the minerals sector. It is against this backdrop that the Commodity Monitor has taken the steps to bring the needed change to the way mining is done in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector.
The launch of the equipment also saw hundreds of Ghanaians, mainly small scale miners, traditional leadership, private and public sector players in attendance.
The Programme also saw the presentation of one of the machines to the winner of the maiden edition of Responsible Small Scale Mining Awards held in December last year.
There were display of placards with the inscriptions “Thank you Nana Addo for Community Mining Scheme”, “Small Scale Mining is attractive now, thank you Nana”, “No more mercury use, saving lives, saving others” among many others.
MLNR
