The Africa Institute for Small Scale Mining (AISSM) has lauded President Akufo-Addo’s commissioning of the over 100 mercury-free gold processing equipment, commonly referred to as Gold Katcha.

In a press release signed by its Country Director, Abdul Salam Yussif, it said “the Africa Institute for Small-scale Mining (AISSM) wishes to congratulate the President and all stakeholders in the mining value chain on the achievement of this great milestone. As an organization that seeks to integrate logical disciplines along the value chain from exploration to mining and mineral processing, focusing on areas of training, research, advocacy, and consultancy; we see this effort by the government as worthwhile.”

AISSM also believes this step taken by the government would play a pivotal step in making Ghana the hub and beacon of hope for small-scale mineral mining on the continent.

It also pleaded with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to be free and fair in their distribution of the machines and to put in place monitoring systems that will ensure the effective and efficient use of the machines.

On Monday, 6th June 2022 at the Independence Square, in Accra, the President commissioned 100 mercury-free gold processing equipment, commonly referred to as Gold Katcha.

The President further stated government’s intention to procure more than 300 of such equipment under the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme for various communities.

The gold Katcha processing plant is an equipment that extracts gold from the ore without the use of mercury, with the capacity to recover over ninety percent (90%) of gold from the ore, and, therefore, give small-scale miners much more gold than they would have obtained from the traditional method of using mercury.