The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources has revealed that a review of mining licenses issued in the final days of the previous administration uncovered serious irregularities.

According to Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, this prompted the government to take urgent steps to sanitise the licensing regime.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with JoyNews on Wednesday, March 19, Mr Buah disclosed that two committees were set up—one composed of security experts and journalists, and another made up of mining professionals to conduct a comprehensive review of mining activities across the country.

• Read also: Lands Minister revokes all small-scale mining licences issued after December 7, 2024

"It was very clear that the licenses from December 7 up were done in a rush without due diligence, and in some cases, some of the reports in the interim report were that some of these communities that are supposed to be impacted were not engaged as required by law. So it was very, very clear that there has to be a restart on those aspects," he stated.

"But we also thought it was important that even though the overall small-scale mining licenses across the border were also fraught with so many problems. The committee had recommended a complete revocation, but after a complete discussion, it was very clear that we still needed to set up a technical team, and that's why today we did that, to basically review and validate all those existing licenses."

The Lands Minister noted that the country is already dealing with multiple challenges, including illegal mining, destruction of our water bodies, and illegal activities in our forests.

"The last thing we want is to make sure that people who have licenses are also adding to the problem. We need to really sanitise the license regime and make sure that those who have licenses are also playing by the rules," the minister stressed.

Mr Buah further lamented that many licensed mining operators were ignoring regulations, failing to renew their permits with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and engaging in what he described as reckless mining practices that destroy forests and water bodies.

"Multiple licenses have been given to people who have not even bothered to follow up on renewals, follow up on the EPA renewals, some of them are completely violating the rules in terms of mining beyond the boundaries that they've been given, and destroying and entering into water bodies.

"The whole process and the guidelines they've been given are complete violations. They are basically engaging in illegal activities," he added.