Written by Prince William Ankrah
Ghana started mining over 100 years ago. Our peers in the mining industry in the developed countries rode on the back of mining receipts to develop their economies. Notable among these are the popular American, Australia and the South African examples. The California example is by all standards the envy of the world. Mining transformed the Californian economy significantly moving it from the most sparsely populated state in America to the most populous one in recent times mainly due to the foresight of successive leadership and the governance structure of the United States of America (USA) in ensuring that the economic fortunes of California was sustained beyond mining. It is, therefore, not surprising that California, as a state, is classified the eighth largest economy in the world according to the Centre for Consulting Study of the California Economy in 2012.
This did not happen per chance but rather as a result of a well thought-out plan envisaging into the future that placed it in such a niche position. The American situation became popularly known as the ‘California Gold Rush’ and South Africa also experienced a period of gold rush which bolstered its economy to the present levels.
Austrialian example
Australia over the last 25 years generated almost US$250 billion from mining which has really helped the Australian economy to build the needed resilience to withstand any shocks. It was not surprising to global economic watchers that Australia escaped the debilitating impact of the 2008/9 financial crisis that crippled major economies around the globe. Indeed, one fundamental thing, which escaped most analysts, is the stability that has been created over the years in the Australian economy; a strategy rooted in its job market, particularly in its mines where competitive remuneration is put on both nationals and non-nationals (including Ghanaian nationals) who receive appropriate skill-based remuneration. The Australian government is able to generate huge tax revenues as pay-as-you-earn from the competitive skill-based salaries of its workers. This, coupled with proper management of mining receipts has kept its economy going where other similar economies have fallen and are struggling to recover.
National debate
In this regard, a national debate as to how mining has benefited our country becomes urgently imperative. We need to use this platform to hold government accountable and demand a roadmap meant to make mining and for that matter the extractive industry more beneficial to our economy. A stitch in time saves nine approach, in our view should be the impetus towards this realisation. It is unfortunate that the situation in the mining sector of Ghana leaves so much to be desired. After years of exploitation, our visionary first president Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah took over the mines and placed them in the hands of Ghanaian management. Indeed, most of those mining companies were virtually declared non viable by our colonial masters.
However, their operations were sustained for several years until we witnessed the diversification of most of the state-owned enterprises. It also offered many young Ghanaians domiciled in those catchment areas a source of employment and livelihood. To an extent, the mines did virtually cater for the infrastructural development of these townships. Disappointingly, mining townships are in the league of the unplanned ones in our country. They, therefore, become ghost towns beyond mining. Akwatia, Bibiani and Prestea, among others, have had their share of total neglect after mine closures. The recent Obuasi panic that engulfed our nation emanating from AngloGold Ashanti’s decision to reposition the Obuasi mine with its associated redundancies heightens the need for sustainable and alternative future of such mining driven local economies.
Tarkwa/Bogoso at the moment have six mining companies operating within their catchment areas but still have haphazard developmental patterns and huge infrastructural deficit. These pointers are factually at variance with the mining flagship economies described in this article. Hitherto, incomes in the mining sector were so low that most of the indigenes of the mining towns did not want to take up jobs in the mining industry. Hence, the industry relied heavily on our brothers from the northern part of the country for its labour. These ex-miners, who hardly had any decent remuneration at the time the industry was under the control and management of the state, retired as paupers.
New Era of Mining
In the mid 1980s, when the Rawlings-led administration introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP); the sector became the leading foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction into the Ghanaian economy. This saw the influx of private mining companies such as Bogoso Gold Resources, Cluff Mining, Golden Ray, among others, which subsequently paved the way for global mining conglomerates like GoldFieds, AngloGold Ashanti, Newmont Ghana Gold, Adamus Mining, Perseus Mining etc into the industry. The influx of global mining capital into Ghana’s mining sector came with it massive numbers of expatriate staff from different parts of the world.
Around the same time, the workforce led by the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union of TUC (Ghana), decided to change their destinies by pursuing policies and strategies aimed at improving their living standards. The Union succeeded in getting its members’ salaries indexed to the US dollar. This initiative was supported by two key visionary leaders, President Jerry Rawlings and Sir Sam Jonah. The indexation was done against the backdrop that the commodity in trade was dollar denominated coupled with the fact that mining costing is done in the United States dollars. Again, in 2010, the Union instituted another strategy known as ‘Agenda $500’. This was a medium-term strategy by the Union to move the minimum salary in the mining industry from an estimated $270 per month to $500 per month by 2013 in an effort to start addressing the huge salary disparity within the sector. These two flagship strategies, coupled with a very detailed collective agreement benefits have not only marginally improved the lives of mineworkers in the last decade but have also created a relative peaceful industrial atmosphere in the mines compared with other sectors in the country.
http://graphic.com.gh/features/opinion/41669-evolution-of-mining-industry-in-ghana-socio-economic-development-and-remuneration-disparities-1.html
