A total of one thousand and five hundred miners have been trained by the Paa Grant University of Mines and Technology in responsible mining practices.
Speaking at a forum of traditional leaders on mining in Accra, President Akufo Addo said the training is part of moves by the government to curb the activities of illegal mining.
“Six hundred miners have so far been trained. As of June the 4th 2018, one thousand five hundred five hundred miners had received training in responsible mining practices”. Mining companies under the Ghana Chamber of Mines directly created 10,503 jobs in 2017.
This is was a drop from 11,628 in 2016, the Ghana Chamber of Mines noted in a report.
Out of the 10,503 direct employees, 159 were expatriates, and the remaining 10,344 were Ghanaians.
The reduction in the industry’s workforce has been attributed mainly to the limited labour rationalisation measures undertaken by Golden Star Resources and Abosso Goldfields Limited.
Mining companies pumped about 70 percent of their revenue back into the country in 2017.
Producing member companies of the Chamber of Mines returned US$ 2.57 billion of their US$ 3.68 billion mineral revenue.
“The plough back of mineral export receipts and expenditure of the same in-country are critical pathways by which mining influences the growth of the non-mineral economy and national development,” the report notes.
In May 2018, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the time had come for mining companies operating in Ghana to begin producing locally many of the inputs they import.
According to him, the huge spending by mining companies leaks from the domestic economy through the importation of several tools and equipment, which Ghana can produce.
“It is time to reverse this trend. Ghanaian entrepreneurs must be encouraged to work with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Chamber to identify opportunities in the value chain, where indigenous companies can manufacture these products locally,” he said.
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