Accra: Deputy Attorney General Dr. Justice Srem-Sai says the state's approach to illegal mining focuses on those who finance and facilitate the activity rather than only those working at mining sites. Speaking on TV3's New Day, he said the policy recognizes that illegal mining operations depend on influential individuals who secure concessions and allow others to operate on them.
According to Ghana Web, Dr. Srem-Sai emphasized that targeting only the workers on the ground would be ineffective because new illegal miners would continue to emerge as long as the financiers and facilitators remain active. He stated, "Those on the ground are breaching the law, but they couldn't successfully do what they are doing without some big, rich, influential kingpins behind it."
Dr. Srem-Sai elaborated on the investigations, which identified a prevalent business model where concession holders without the capital to undertake mining themselves open their concessions to illegal miners in exchange for payment. "You get a concession, and because you don't have the capital, the easiest way is to open the concession up to illegal miners and take rent from them. That is the business model," he explained.
He further argued that the acts of financing or facilitating illegal mining should be considered as serious as the act of mining itself. "It's a whole chain of production, from financing to forming companies. The fact that you are not the one digging doesn't mean you are not part of the illegal mining," he asserted.