Government Has No Plans To Ban Small Scale Mining - Minister

Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has said that government has no plans to ban small scale mining in the country.

He says government has rather rolled out plans to stream line the activities of small scale mining in order to protect the water bodies and natural resources which have been vastly destroyed by galamsey activities.

Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng added that the country has lost huge amount of money in revenues due to the activities of small scale miners.

It is in the interest of government and small scale miners that their activities are regulated to ensure that revenues are generated for the country.

"As chairman for the Inter ministerial mining committee, we are inaugurating committees to oversee to the activities of the small scale miners", he added. 

The Minister who also chairs the inter-ministerial committee on mining further outlined the establishment of three mining districts across the country to deregulate the supervision of the mining activities of the small scale miners.

“To strengthen those areas, the government is going to set up three new mining districts and funds have been made available for this exercise.

"So after this then the inspectorate division of the Minerals Commission will be empowered to make sure they go to the mine site to inspect any form of irregularity so that we do not wait for years for this thing to take us by surprise”, he told Okay FM.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng added, “At every point we will know what is happening on the mining site as we will be monitoring the various mining siteS with the help of acquired drones.

Already there is the plan to train small scale miners on proper mining methods which will span from July to August 2017.

The move is among others expected to sustain the gains recorded in the reduction of the illegal mining activities.

Presidential Staffer, Charles Onua Wontor Bissue who is a member of the inter ministerial task force also described government's commitment to fighting illegal mining which has caused so much damage to the country's natural resources.

"If you come to the Western Region where I come from, lots of the Natural resources and Forest reserve which served as tourist destinations for foreigners and generating income for the municipal and district assemblies have all been destroyed due to illegal mining", he explained.

He added that, "It is for this reason that government is taking the bold step to restore the natural reserves and polluted water bodies which hitherto served as portable drinking water for some communities in the region."