By Erica Apeatua Addo
Tarkwa (W/R), Nov. 22, GNA – Mr Stephen Yeboah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Commodity Monitor Limited, has appealed to small scale miners to embrace the ‘GoldKacha’ Mercury-Free Rock Processing Technology.
The technology, he said, had proven to be efficient and environmentally friendly with high tonnes per hour processing and high gold recovery without the use of mercury.
Speaking at the opening of a one-day training workshop organized by his outfit for small-scale miners and other stakeholders in Tarkwa and its environs, on the theme “Artisanal and Small-scale Mining and Impact of Chemicals In Gold Recovery: Can Improved Technology be the Game-changer”, Mr Yeboah said the programme sought to create awareness on the health impact of chemicals used in gold recovery.
He said it would also highlight the importance of early-stage prospecting and exploration in the Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASGM) sector, demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the ‘GoldKacha’ Mercury-free technology to improve gold recovery by the ASGM.
Commodity Monitor Limited would further focus on how ASGM operators can be provided with the necessary financial and technical assistance to adopt efficient and clean mining technologies that would not only improve gold productivity but also minimize or best eradicate the negative environmental impact of their activities, said the CEO.
According to Mr Yeboah, “The machine is extremely effective, as a company, we have done analysis and comparison with the traditional system which they are operating. Our machine recovers a minimum of 90 per cent gold while the traditional one barely even gets 25 per cent gold so that explains why the ‘GoldKacha’ technology is good for small scale miners”.
He stressed that similar workshops would be held for ASM stakeholders across all mining district to facilitate a multi sectorial and interdisciplinary discourse, dialogue and sharing of knowledge, idea and experiences on how existing, modern technologies and innovations can be leveraged to formalize and sanitize the ASM in a way that satisfy responsible mining principles and practice.
In his presentation, Professor Paul Poku Sampene, lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KUNST), advised the non-industrial miners whose activities were not regulated to refrain from using heavy metals such as cyanide, mercury, and lead to extract gold.
He pointed out that “It can get into the air and our food chain for instance cassava and cocoa yam. When we breathe or consume food that has these heavy metals, it can cause so much harm, especially to children.
Adults absorb about 15 per cent of these heavy metals into their system while children digest and assimilate as much as 90 per cent. This can affect their brain function.”
Mr Benjamin Kessie, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), of Tarkwa-Nsuaem, added that ASM plays a very vital role in the global gold supply chain, providing livelihoods for millions of people in developing countries like Ghana and Tarkwa is no exception.
However, ASM operations encounter numerous obstacles, including inefficient gold processing methods and use of chemicals that have adverse environmental and health effects.
Mr Kessie said “in our pursuit of sustainable development and responsible mining practices, it is imperative to explore the potential improved technology as a game-changer in this field. Technology has proven repeatedly to be a catalyst for progress and innovation, and we believe it holds great promise in transforming ASM for the better”.
Mr Joseph Samuel Bonzo, a small-scale miner at Fante Mines, in the Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality, who has been mining for 20 years, currently uses the mercury-free technology to mine, thanked Commodity Monitor Limited for supporting local industrialization in the production of mining inputs and technologies.
He said comparing the old system of mining to the ‘GoldKacha’ mercury-free technology, l can confirm that it’s the best because small scale miners always got their gold through boarding but with the ‘GoldKacha’ a concentrator helps me to recover more gold without chemicals”.
Mr Napoleon Tandoh, Public Relations Officer of small-scale miners, Tarkwa centre, lauded the government and Commodity Monitor Limited for introducing the mercury-free technology, encouraged all small-scale miners to adopt this technology as the use of mercury, cyanide and other chemicals in their activities put them and the communities they operated in at risk.
Commodity Monitor Limited later took participants to Mr Bonzo’s mining site at Fante Mines to demonstrate how the Mercury-Free processing technology worked.
GNA