Common Mining Law Proposed for West African States


The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Oxfam America in mid-April announced a proposal for a region-wide mining code that would introduce common social, environmental, and business practice standards across the 15 ECOWAS countries. Ghana and Mali are members of ECOWAS and have substantial gold-mining industries. Other gold producers in the group include Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.

In an April 18, 2008, news article, UN Integrated Regional Information Networks reported that the proposed mining code was launched in Dakar, Senegal, on April 17 and that ratification would be sought from ECOWAS parliaments during 2009. Goals of the code include transparent financial practices, strict environmental standards and assurance that more mining industry revenue ends up in the hands of governments and communities. Consultations are planned with the private sector and others before details of the code are finalized and the code comes before ECOWAS member states for a vote.

National mining codes were weakened in many countries in the 1990s when the World Bank pushed governments to deregulate, the article states, with countries in the region competing with each other to attract foreign investors.

Helene Cisse, a Dakar-based lawyer and a legal consultant on the mining code, was quoted in a Voice of America article as saying meaningful partnership among all concerned is the only way mining can be profitable in the long run. “We need productive investment. But it must be for the sake of everybody, for the interest of everybody. And this is the basic idea of this mining code, to convince the people that there is no durable development, human development, if there is no partnership.”

In a separate development, Ghana’s Minister of Mines Esther Obeng Dapaah said in an address to a meeting of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Accra, Ghana, that Ghana will amend its laws to gain more benefit from its mining sector. “Our laws will have to be amended. At the moment the laws are so liberal. The idea was to attract investment, but we are willing to take a look at our laws again,” the minister told delegates at a forum on how developing nations can benefit more from high commodities prices, Reuters reported on April 23. “A committee is being organized to look into mining activities in Ghana and how Ghana can benefit from mining,” Dapaah said.

Dapaah also said that Ghana had relied too much on the exploitation of gold, diamonds, bauxite and manganese, and would move to increase production of other minerals, such as kaolin, limestone, salt and columbite-tantalite.


As featured in Womp 08 Vol 5 - www.womp-int.com