The Catchment Area Community Alliance (CACA), a pressure group in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality, has urged President John Dramani Mahama to fulfill a 2024 campaign pledge to revamp underground mining in Prestea.
CACA says the current operator, Heath Goldfields, lacks the financial capacity to conduct underground mining and has turned instead to surface mining — a practice the group argues is indistinguishable from illegal mining, or “galamsey.”
The alliance is therefore demanding the immediate revocation of the company’s mining licence.
On Friday 20th March, 2026, ahead of a scheduled meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission to register their grievances, CACA staged a demonstration along Prestea’s principal streets.
Protesters voiced concerns about Heath Goldfields’ ability to manage the underground mine and warned they would not tolerate exploitation of the mine by “a group of individuals.”
The group also accused the company of carrying out surface mining just metres from the main Prestea–Borndie road without providing an alternative route — a move CACA says “poses a serious threat to motorists and commuters because the operation sits close to one of the Prestea shafts”.
CACA further claims that the takeover by Heath Goldfields resulted in the sacking of about 800 workers, and vowed to resist any further actions by the company that they consider unjust.
The alliance reiterated its call for President Mahama to implement his 2024 promise to revitalize underground mining in Prestea.
Responding to the allegations in a previous media engagement, Heath Goldfields’ Managing Director, Patrick Appiah Mensah, said, “the company has hired about 1,400 workers, roughly 80 percent of whom are from host communities”.
He added that the company is conducting a feasibility study on the Prestea underground mine.
CACA has announced plans to deliver a petition asking for the revocation of Heath Goldfields’ mining lease at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Minerals Commission and the Presidency on Tuesday, 24 March 2026.
Reporting by Isaac Hughes, Western Region
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