We Don’t Need Multinational Gold Miners In Tinga – Local Miners Tell Govt

Mr. Mohammed Abdul Rahman Soale

Small Scale Miners at Tinga in the Bole District of the Northern Region of Ghana, have appealed to government to consider marking out concessions in the area as part of its plans to create more avenues for job creation.

According to the miners, there are huge deposits of gold and other mineral resources under the surface of the land in the entire Bole District, but failure by successive governments to take interest in putting proper structures in place to develop the mining business is creating chaos.

Briefing journalists at Tinga on the economic potentials of the area, Chairman of the Small Scale Miners, Mohammed Abdul-Rahman Soale, said miners are making a lot of money but due to the unstructured nature of the business, government is losing a lot of revenue which could have been used to provide social amenities for the people.  

“We want the Minerals Commission to open an office in the Northern Region to facilitate the speedy processing of documents required by prospective miners to go into mining instead of everything being done in the nation’s capital.

“The presence of the Commission and other institutions to put in place proper structures would bring about increase revenue to government and the District Assembly for the development of our district as well as create jobs for the youth”, Mr. Soale emphasised.

He also cautioned government against inviting foreign multinationals to come to the area for gold mining, saying “we the locals have the capacity to mine every gold deposit in Bole District. The only support we need is for government to initiate reforms that would enhance the capacity of we the local miners.

Miners Briefing The Press on Happenings At Tinga

“We would resist any attempt by government to allow foreign multinationals to invade Tinga or any part of Bole to take away what rightly belong to us as citizens of Ghana and for that matter, Bole”, he hinted.

Tinga is the second largest town after Bole, the district capital. It is blessed with large deposits of gold, and according to residents, each time it rains during the rainy season, one can fine gold being washed away.

With a population of over 10 thousand people, Tinga is seriously faced with issues of environmental degradation and crime such as armed robbery targeted at miners and gold buyers. 

Mr. Soale further appealed to government to beef up security in the area by increasing police visibility and also equipping them with the requisite logistics to maintain law and order.