President John Dramani Mahama has pledged to step up the fight against illegal mining, emphasizing that since taking office again, his administration has not granted any mining permits in Ghana’s forest reserves.
In order to provide legal support for the administration’s promise, the President stated during his first press conference of his second term on September 10, 2025, that the Cabinet had started the process of repealing Legislative Instrument 2462, which authorizes mining in reserves.
“To be clear, not a single licence has been issued to any company to mine in our forest reserves. The repeal of LI 2462 is intended to crystallise in law what we have already demonstrated in practice,” Mr Mahama stated.
He disclosed that military forces were being stationed continuously to guard against re-invasion and that nine forest reserves that had been overrun by illegal miners had been seized and restored.
The President revealed that 980 security guards had been hired and sent to guard water bodies and reserves, and that 440 excavators, over 1,400 water pumps, and 300 chamfang machines had been seized in recent months.
By the end of the year, he said an additional 1,020 personnel would be added, bringing the total to 2,000. The next phase of the strategy would focus on restoring degraded water bodies and reclaiming lands.
He added that feasibility studies for water restoration projects were ongoing, alongside efforts to track all imported earth-moving equipment through a coordinated system involving the Transport Ministry, Customs, DVLA, and the Minerals Commission.
“So far, 1,015 excavators and mining equipment have been registered and fitted with tracking devices, with hundreds more undergoing the process,” he revealed.
President Mahama said the crackdown was part of a broader environmental protection strategy to ensure that Ghana’s natural resources were preserved for future generations.
