Use Artificial Intelligence to Fight Galamsey – Dr. Kpodar tells Govt.

Chief Executive Officer of Solomon Investment Group Limited, Dr. Chris Kpodar, has said that, the world is at the fourth industrial revolution which requires expertise in artificial intelligent and digitization to deal with national threats such as galamsey in Ghana. Dr. Kpodar upholds that, with the introduction of artificial intelligence into the mining sector and other sectors of the Ghanaian economy, the country will witness viable growth and total transformation of the economic outlook and indicators.

The astute Businessman in an interview on the ‘THE NEWS’ on GhanaNews.tv, explained that the Solomon Investment Group Limited has spent over four years researching into the mining sector of the Ghanaian economy. He opined that the company has proposed some meticulous solutions including the use of digitization and artificial intelligence to solve problems identified during the research. He said Galamsey will continue to cause havoc to the environment and the health of the small scale miners until a more sustainable module is adopted by the government as a standard of mining in the country.

“We are in an era which requires artificial intelligence and digitization and this could apply to almost all the sectors of our economy including services, the cedi and primary production like mining. I have a strong believe and desire that the only way to take care of this galamsey problem efficiently is to adopt artificial intelligence in the secto,r” he noted.

Dr. Kpodar asserted that the inability of individuals and multinational companies in the country to follow the various international conventions on mining makes the sector unproductive to support the complete turnaround of the Ghanaian economy. He said artificial intelligence will provide data on the small scale miner thereby regulating their activities and supporting them with the appropriate chemicals, materials, tool and equipment for a more dignifying mining activity that will yield enough revenue for the state, whiles the small scale miner also makes his gains from the sales of the mineral to the government.

Dr. Chris Kpodar, who is also the Technical Advisor on Mines and Energy at the Center for Greater Impact Africa (CGIA), pointed out the need for proper processes and methodology in handling the various levels of mining in the country. He believes that for any government to derive the best from its mining sector, a proper gold refinery that can add value to the gold mined in the country must be a crucial priority.

He explained that the community mining strategy of the government is a laudable initiative but has been bedeviled with various issues which must serve as basis for a more comprehensive approach for dealing with especially galamsey in the various parts of the country. Dr. Kpodar opined that the challenges associated with community mining are genuine as all the underground forces will surface in the implementation process of such initiatives, therefore a bold and holistic system to make it more efficient and result oriented is what we should consider.

The Businessman was satisfied with the performance of President Akufo-Addo and his team with regards to the fight against galamsey. He explained that the President has over the period designed and implemented various strategies and operations to halt the menace, but seems not to be effective enough to completely deal with the issues, leaving the country with computerization of the activities of the sector as the only suitable way of dealing the challenges and making greater gains from gold and other minerals as a country.
By Derick Bostyoe