It has, therefore, tasked the newly constituted governing board of the Minerals Commission to tackle the environmental and social challenges posed by illegal small-scale mining, commodity cycle and sparse exploration activities.

Madam Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, a Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, who said this in Accra on Monday, during the swearing-in of the members of the Board, charged them to work closely with relevant stakeholders in the mining sector to streamline and manage activities of small-scale mining.

She also tasked them to work with the team that would implement the Multilateral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP), to ensure government’s vision of harnessing the mining sector for economic transformation was realised.

The contribution of the mining sector to the country’s gross domestic product in 2016 was 2.1 per cent whilst receipts from the minerals sector constituted 16 per cent of direct domestic tax revenue last year, she noted.

Madam Oteng-Gyasi said: “From the meagre annual values of about 280,000 ounces produced in the 1980s, today, Ghana produces in excess of four million ounces of gold, making it the 10th largest producer in the world”.

She noted that the Commission had played a significant role in the resurgence of the mining sector from the mid-1980s, including attracting more than $17 billion dollars Foreign Direct Investment into the sector.

The Deputy Minister, therefore, noted that it was part of the government’s ambition to increase transparency in the allocation of mineral rights, utilise mineral revenues at national and community levels, support economic value addition and decentralise the Commission to ensure sustainable mining.

To this end, she said, it required experienced, knowledgeable, dynamic and resilient leadership to achieve the set goals.

“I have no doubt that these are the quality of persons the President has appointed to the Commission to help deliver the aspirations of the government and the people,” she said.

Madam Oteng-Gyasi noted that various legislations had been passed between 2006 and 2016 to strengthen the mining regulatory regime while policies on mining had been consolidated into a national mining policy document in 2014, which embodied the Africa Mining Vision of transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources for sustainable growth.

Mr Samson Kwaku Boafo, the Chairperson of the Board, on behalf of the members, expressed appreciation to the President for the confidence reposed in them and assured that, the Board would not disappoint him in discharging his statutory duties.

He said it would support the government to achieve its transformational agenda in order to ensure prosperity for all Ghanaians.

Mr Boafo noted that although they had been ushered into office at a difficult and critical period considering the myriad of challenges facing the mining industry, they would do their best to meet the expectations of the government and the citizenry.

The members of the Board include Mr Martin Koku Ayisi, Mr Adam Tettey Larbie, Mr Joseph Albert Quarm, Madam Esther Dey and Mrs Judy Nakour Crayem.

Others are; Madam Lydia Alhassan, James Koligu Ataki and Mr Kwaku Antwi-Boasiko, the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission.