The Director of Mining at the Ministry for Lands and Natural Resources, Dr. Benjamin Aryee, has suggested that the fight against illegal mining should be decentralized to be more effective.
He is of the view the centralized national operation is yielding little results.
[contextly_sidebar id=”1dpLPEGcvR1rsgxQwVx3pNL7bMRp6gqF”]Illegal mining activities are still ongoing despite the work of the anti-illegal mining task-force, Operation Vanguard, and the enhanced sensitisation in the past two years.
In a bid to sanitise small-scale mining sector, the government was compelled to impose a ban on all forms of small-scale mining in 2017.
The contribution of small-scale mining surged in 2017 despite the ban, a proof that small-scale mining activities did not seize.
Speaking on Citi TV’s Point of View, Dr. Aryee maintained that localized committees will be a better remedy to illegal mining.
“What it is that, by the law, we are required to have district mining committees in each assembly, so if we have the committee working which is made up of the regulators… and we also bring on board the miners themselves, there is no way they will not know about any mining activity in that area.”
Also on the show, the Secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal Mining, Charles Bissue, said government’s mining policy announcement on Friday will propose an overall reform of the mining sector in the country.
“He [Dr. Benjamin Aryee] mentioned the law and the district committee on mining, but then it wasn’t working. That is why at the IMCI [Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal Mining], the President directed the district committee, which is an Ad-hoc one to actually look at the whole problem.”
“On Friday, it is the reforms that are coming out [in the mining policy]. I wouldn’t want to say what is in there now,” he added.
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By: Anass Seidu | citinewsroom.com | Ghana