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Ms Joyce Aryee, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, has announced that the mining sector paid GH�179,978,383, to government in 2008, representing more than 14 per cent of the country's total internal revenue collection. This was aside dividends and corporate taxes paid to the government. The sector also returned more than 63 per cent of mineral revenue to the State. Six per cent went to the central government and the assemblies in the form of royalties and taxes. Ten per was paid to the Volta River Authority and Electricity Company of Ghana for power supply with 13 per cent going to oil marketing companies. The mining companies paid about GH�73 million representing three per cent of mineral revenue as taxes, levies and duties on the product to government as well as margins to the oil marketing companies. The CEO made this known when he interacted with the Ashanti Region Press Corps at a networking launch in Kumasi on Friday. Shedding light on the industry and macro economy in the past year, Ms Aryee said 63 per cent of the mineral revenue returned to the country through the Bank of Ghana, whilst 22 per cent was used to procure inputs locally. She said having identified small scale mining as a potential to generate employment and value to the state, the chamber had advocated the simplification of the current cumbersome licensing procedure to enable small- scale miners to operate legally. The illegal status and lack of formal regulation in small scale mining in which more than 500,000 people are engaged, poses serious challenges in terms of adherence to safety, health and environment and reversing the gains of the mining industry, as a catalyst for national development. Miss Aryee also spoke of the Chamber's contribution to regulations on the Mining law for the standardisation of compensation processes in mining areas.