- Ashigbey Urges Ghana to Dismantle Financial and Political Networks Behind Galamsey
The reported conviction of Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, must become a template for systematically prosecuting the financiers and politically connected operators behind illegal mining rather than remain an isolated case, according to Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, chief executive of the Ghana Chamber of Mines.
Dr Ashigbey said Ghana would not defeat illegal mining by concentrating enforcement on labourers and machine operators found at mining sites while leaving those who provide capital, equipment, concessions and political protection largely untouched.
Speaking during a NorvanReports discussion on the political, financial and corporate networks sustaining illegal mining, he described galamsey as an “existential threat” to Ghana’s environmental security, economic prospects and democratic institutions.
“The real test is whether the Wontumi conviction becomes the new normal rather than another exception,” Dr Ashigbey said.
His remarks reflect growing pressure on Ghana’s enforcement institutions to move beyond sporadic raids and establish a consistent system for identifying and prosecuting the principal beneficiaries of illegal mining.
For years, security operations have led mainly to the arrest of workers at mining sites. Yet those who finance excavators, organise access to mineral-rich land, purchase illegally produced gold and intervene politically when operations are disrupted have rarely faced comparable scrutiny.
Dr Ashigbey said the Wontumi case could become a watershed only if it triggered a wider change in investigative and prosecutorial practice.
A single conviction, however prominent, would have limited impact if other influential suspects continued to benefit from delays, incomplete investigations or institutional protection.
He pointed to the previous prosecution of Chinese mining operator Aisha Huang and the conviction of four Chinese financiers in Tarkwa in 2022 as examples of cases that attracted national attention but did not establish a sustained pattern of enforcement against those financing the illegal mining economy.
Such prosecutions showed that Ghana possessed the legal authority to act against powerful operators, he said. The weakness was the absence of consistency.
Official figures cited by Dr Ashigbey indicated that Ghana secured 163 illegal mining-related convictions between 2020 and 2025.
Those convicted included 146 Ghanaians, five Burkinabes, four Togolese, three Nigerians and three Chinese nationals.
But only a small number could reasonably be regarded as financiers, organisers or principal beneficiaries of the operations, he argued. Most were labourers, machine operators and others occupying the lowest level of the illegal mining chain.
“The people financing and benefiting from these operations remain largely untouched,” Dr Ashigbey said.
The pattern has reinforced public perceptions that Ghana’s anti-galamsey campaign is more effective at arresting vulnerable workers than pursuing individuals with significant financial resources or political influence.
Dr Ashigbey said campaigners had repeatedly petitioned state institutions since 2022 to investigate and prosecute alleged financiers connected to illegal mining.
He referred to a case involving alleged mining activities in the Tano River Forest Reserve, which he said remained before the courts despite earlier public statements by government officials that mining in the protected area was unlawful.
The slow progress of cases involving influential individuals stood in contrast to the speed with which ordinary miners were frequently arrested and prosecuted, he said.
Such disparities risked undermining trust in the justice system and creating the impression that enforcement outcomes depended on the political and financial standing of the accused.
Dr Ashigbey acknowledged renewed government efforts against illegal mining but warned that political commitment alone could not provide a durable response.
Administrations change and political priorities shift. Investigations must therefore be supported by institutions capable of continuing their work regardless of changes in government.
Civil society organisations, journalists, regulators and citizens should maintain pressure on enforcement agencies to ensure that cases involving influential suspects do not disappear once public attention diminishes, he said.
“If we leave everything to politicians, today’s momentum could easily become tomorrow’s forgotten case,” he cautioned.
Dr Ashigbey argued that investigators should increasingly follow the financial and operational architecture of illegal mining.
That would require identifying those who purchase excavators and processing equipment, finance fuel and labour, facilitate access to concessions, buy the resulting gold and provide protection from enforcement.
Ghana’s Minerals and Mining Act already provides for prison sentences, financial penalties and the confiscation of machinery and other assets connected to illegal mining.
The problem, he said, was not necessarily the absence of legislation but the selective and inconsistent application of existing laws.
Authorities should also pursue the proceeds generated from illegal mining, rather than limiting sanctions to imprisonment or the seizure of equipment found at a site.
Funds and assets recovered from convicted operators could be directed towards restoring polluted rivers, reclaiming degraded land and assisting communities affected by destroyed farms and mining-related health risks.
The expansion of illegal mining networks also presented a wider governance threat, Dr Ashigbey warned.
The substantial profits generated by illicit gold production could provide politically connected actors and criminal groups with the financial power to influence elections, regulators and public institutions.
Unchecked, such networks could weaken the independence of state agencies and allow illegal wealth to become embedded within Ghana’s political and economic systems.
The country still had an opportunity to prevent that outcome, he said, but only through consistent action against financiers, organisers, equipment owners, gold buyers and those providing political or security protection.
The significance of the Wontumi case would therefore be determined less by the prominence of the individual involved than by what followed.
Should investigators begin systematically pursuing other powerful actors and confiscating the proceeds of illegal mining, the case could mark a decisive shift in Ghana’s anti-galamsey campaign.
But should enforcement return to arresting labourers while financiers remain protected, Dr Ashigbey warned, the conviction would become another exceptional case that failed to alter the criminal economy sustaining one of Ghana’s most destructive industries.
