President John Dramani Mahama has revealed that government has successfully removed eight illegal miners out of nine forest reserves previously designated as no-go reserves due to severe environmental degradation.
Speaking at the Global Mining Summit, on Monday, June 2, 2025, President Mahama described the action as a major milestone in the country’s renewed efforts to reclaim degraded lands and promote responsible mining.
He added that the government has deployed river guards to combat illegal mining along water bodies and riverbanks
“Together with the small-scale mining sector, we will reclaim our forest reserves and restore the purity of our water bodies.
“Our river guards are working on clearing mining activities on our water bodies and the banks of our rivers.
“As the Minister told you, we have successfully cleared eight illegal miners out of the nine no-go forest reserves,” Mahama said.
President John Mahama also announced a government policy that only permits the importation of the excavators under a strict regime .
The essence is to deal with the influx of excavators imported into Counry that has contributed to illegal mining.
“We will track excavators in order to know whether they are being used for illegal mining or not and we intend to change the permitting regime.
“Ghana currently has more excavators than the rest of Africa combined. The new permitting regime will not allow you to import any excavator unless you have a valid permit to do so,” Mahama stated.
