A small-scale miner, Henry Okum, has told the High Court in Accra that the mining concessions in Samreboi in the Western Region were handed over to him by the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, to mine.
Henry Okum, who is testifying as the second prosecution witness, said that, prior to Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, handing over the place to him, he tasked him to do two things, including covering the mined area to plant coconuts.
“I was the one that Chairman Wontumi handed the place over to, so I was dealing directly with Chairman Wontumi,” the witness told the Court about the Samreboi concession.
Chairman Wontumi (1st accused), Kwame Antwi, a Director of Akonta Mining (currently at large – 2nd accused), and Akonta Mining, the company itself (3rd accused), are currently standing trial for six counts. The charges comprise three counts each of assignment of mineral rights without approval and purposely facilitating an unlicensed mining operation.
They have pleaded not guilty, been granted bail, and are standing trial before the High Court presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay.
Under further cross-examination from lawyers of Chairman Wontumi, led by Andy Appiah Kubi, on January 15, 2026, Henry Okum addressed the Court on his licence status and how he got access to the Samreboi concession from Chairman Wontumi, who owned Akonta Mining.
Counsel for Wontumi suggested to the witness that he was mining at Samreboi without a licence, but the witness disagreed. He explained that, “because the licence I was using there is (from) Akonta Mining,” and that “before I went to Samreboi, I went to the Minerals Commission to do a search about the area.”
He added that, upon his search, he was told that “the area belongs to Akonta Mining Company, and within the search, it also shows that Akonta Mining Company has a mining lease on the land, so that pushed me to go to Chairman to ask him whether I can work there.”
For this reason, he said, “the licence I was using there is Akonta Mining licence.”
Okum, testifying as the second prosecution witness, said that “when you go to Samreboi, nobody knows Akonta Mining Board of Directors,” and though he is also not a director or board member of Akonta Mining, “what I know is that Chairman Wontumi owns Akonta Mining, and Akonta Mining is Chairman Wontumi.”
He told the Court that, before he went to Samreboi, “it was Chairman Wontumi who went to do the operation on the ground for me through the Regional Security Council (REGSEC), and the letter that we wrote to REGSEC was on Akonta Mining letterhead, and that was signed by Chairman Wontumi.”
The witness disagreed with counsel for the accused persons that Akonta Mining was responsible for the letter and not Chairman Wontumi.
Abandoned pits
The witness, while responding to the question as to whether the concession he entered was “land all virgin,” answered in the negative, saying, “the land was not virgin.”
He explained further that “it was an already mined area, so there are a lot of abandoned pits on the land.”
The witness said that “that is why Chairman made me understand that there are illegalities on the land,” and that “if I want to go on the land to work, he had two things that I had to do for him.”
The witness told the Court that the first thing Chairman Wontumi asked him to do was “to cover the abandoned pits” and to excavate the area, while “the waste will be put at a certain area for me to have access to the gravel which contains the gold.”
For the area that had been mined, Mr Okum said, “I had to push the waste from the pit before I could have access to fresh land and work.”
The witness also disagreed with counsel that the complaints of Chairman Wontumi (first accused) to REGSEC were in respect of illegal mining on that land. He explained that “because of the discussion that I had with Chairman (Wontumi), he also brought out that these are the issues on the land, and so yes, it can be a factor,” and also that “it opens space for me to get access to the area and work because there are a lot of galamseyers on the land, and it will not make my work easy.”
REGSEC action
He told the Court that the presence of illegal miners on the site left him worried when asked by counsel for the accused. It was the witness’s further testimony to the Court that “I was, because if Chairman did not go and sack them (illegal miners), it would make my work difficult.”
He said that when Chairman wrote that letter, REGSEC came to the site to sack them, saying that “they came, led by the Regional Commander at Tarkwa, to drive everybody on the land away, and they seized every excavator that was working there.”
Asked if these seized excavators and equipment belonged to the illegal miners, he responded in the positive, adding that “they belonged to the illegal miners.”
Licence procurement
While apprising the Court on how to acquire a small-scale mining licence, when asked to share his experience with “us as you went through the process of acquiring a mining licence,” the witness said that “I can only speak on small-scale mining licence and not large-scale.”
He went on to explain that “if you want to become a small-scale miner, the first thing you need to do is go to the Minerals Commission.”
He said that “every small-scale area has a place that the government releases as a block-out for small-scale mining.”
The witness said that “when you go to the Commission, the areas are being painted green – meaning it is for small-scale mining,” and that “after you have identified that area, you need to go to the ground and pick the coordinates of the area in question.”
It was his explanation that after “you come back to the Minerals Commission and give the coordinates to the Minerals Commission to find out whether that area has already been given to a different person or if the place is free for you to apply.”
From that point, he said that “if the place is free, they will ask you to go and buy a form,” and that “if it is not, they will tell you that the place has been taken. If it is free, you will fill the form with your information and then the name of the enterprise or the venture that you want to use to apply for that area, and from there, it becomes a process.”
Site plan
Touching on the process to the end, he said that “the first thing you need to do is get the site plan of the area, and then we will continue, and the Commission will call you after you have presented the site plan showing the area of interest.”
The witness explained that “before you even go onto the land to do anything on the land, you have to pass through that system.”
“You need to pay for stool land, EPA, Water Resources, and then have the mining lease, which is the final certificate, before you can do any mining activities in that area. And again, when it comes to small-scale, we have regional branches of the Minerals Commission, so all these processes are done at the regional offices,” he explained.
“You can also go to the District Assembly, and then they will place a notice for 21 days at the town that you want to operate, so that if the chiefs and the people have any objection at that place, they will let you know.
“After the 21 days and there is no objection, then the Assembly will approve that you can go there and undertake your mining activities,” he said.
