Cabinet has approved amendments to its mining law for submission to parliament, Mines Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah said on Wednesday.

This is part of government efforts to increase oversight ​of the key revenue-earning sector and curb illegal mining.

Ghana, Africa's top gold ​producer, has been implementing reforms aimed at boosting state revenue and ⁠increasing local participation in its mineral wealth.

This year, it introduced a sliding-scale ​gold royalty regime linked to prices and signalled plans to phase out fiscal stability ​agreements, a move that could affect major miners including Newmont, Gold Fields, AngloGold Ashanti, Zijin and Perseus.

Ghana's Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 has been in force for nearly two decades ​and requires an overhaul to provide an updated, coherent and forward-looking legal framework ​for the sector, Buah told a news conference in Accra.

"This policy seeks to indigenize mining ‌by ⁠strengthening local content through domestic value addition to minerals, improve linkages to the manufacturing industry, and deal decisively with the menace of illegal mining and the protection of our environment."

The proposed law also creates district mining committees, giving host communities an ​early role in ​the licensing process.

Reconnaissance ⁠and prospecting licences will be replaced by a single exploration licence capped at five years, with extensions contingent on a ​review of an initial two-year work programme.

“If for five years ​you can’t ⁠act, we will take it from you”, Buah said, adding that the measure targets speculators who hold licenses without investing in exploration.

Mining leases would remain capped at ⁠20 years, ​but companies would now be required to sign ​separate community development agreements negotiated directly with host communities, rather than decided unilaterally by the mining ​company, he added.