There are reports that the Talensi Traditional Council, at a meeting on Saturday, 26 September 2026, announced a ban on illegal mining in Talensi.
There is nothing special about that announcement, except the widespread belief that it is targeted at a particular licensed small-scale miner who has refused to surrender his concession to a Chinese company operating in Talensi with a controversial and questionable large-scale mining licence.
On the ground, the announcement is widely seen as a smokescreen— deployed, as usual, by the Tongraan, Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang, head of the Council — to back the Chinese company’s persistent bid to seize the concession from its Ghanaian owner who is a native of Talensi.
It is believed that the announcement seeks to brand any local miner who refuses to bow to the Tongraan and do the bidding of the Chinese company, which the Tongraan has been openly defending, as an illegal miner.
Everyone knows illegal mining (galamsey) is bad. Every traditional chief in Ghana knows it. Every farmer, every student and every mother, who has seen her water polluted, knows it.
The fight against galamsey has been waged for years. Traditional councils, district assemblies, civil society organisations, and the Presidency itself have all pronounced on it. So what is new in a statement in September 2026 repeating what we all already know?
The Council’s ban is belated. It comes long after many other traditional authorities across the country took the same step. It comes after the media has reported, after the youth have protested, and after the lands have already been degraded. To issue a ban now and present it as bold leadership is to arrive at the battlefield after the war.
But more than being belated, the ban is also not sincere. It is double standards disguised as justice. It is loud against one side but silent on the other flank.
The same Talensi Traditional Council that now claims customary mandate to protect water bodies, sacred groves, farmlands and public safety has maintained a shameful and deafening silence on the tragedies recorded inside the mine of Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited – the Chinese company operating right in its own traditional area and formerly known as Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited.
How many have died in that mine? How many young men and women of the Upper East Region have been permanently disabled? How many families are still nursing injuries that will never heal? The Council has not said a word.
We have seen a letter in which workers of Earl International Group themselves complained that they were working in an unsafe environment. They warned that their lives were in danger. Those warnings were ignored.
Let us be honest: the tragedies and issues within that Chinese mine are not different from the effects of galamsey, if not even worse. Galamsey destroys the environment, same as the conditions that led to the horrors recorded at Earl/Shaanxi right before the eyes of the same Talensi Traditional Council.
So, what is the difference? Why is one condemned and the other tolerated? A Traditional Council cannot claim to protect its people from galamsey while closing its eyes when a large-scale mining company subjects the same people to unsafe conditions that kill and maim them.
The blood spilled in an unlicensed pit and the blood spilled in a licensed pit are both Talensi blood. This is why the Council’s ban lacks moral authority. You cannot ban unauthorised mining to protect lives while remaining silent on a mine that is taking lives and rarely compensates the victims.
You cannot claim to defend sacred groves and farmlands when you will not defend the priceless lives of the very human beings who farm those lands. If the Council were sincere, its statement would not have singled out only galamsey. It would have addressed ALL forms of destructive and unsafe mining – legal and illegal. It would have demanded a safety audit at Earl International, demanded compensation for victims, and demanded respect for workers’ rights to a safe workplace.
It did none of that. Until the Talensi Traditional Council finds the same courage to speak against the powerful licensed company that it has found to speak against the powerless galamsey miner, its ban must be seen for what it is: a belated public relations exercise, not a sincere commitment to the welfare of Talensi.
The good people of Talensi are not fooled. They know illegal mining is bad. They have always known. What they want to know is: does the Council have the courage to protect them from ALL who harm them?
Source: Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana/ West Africa
