Gov’t to lift ban on small-scale mining by December

• Posted on August 17, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The government has given the assurance that it may lift the ban on all forms of small-scale mining by the end of 2018.

The government was compelled to issue the ban in 2017, at the time illegal mining was destroying the county’s land and water resources.

Analysts warned that Ghana may resort to the importation of clean water in the next two decades if the threat was not eradicated.

Professor Frimpong Boateng, Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Task-force Against Illegal Mining, who spoke in an interview was optimistic that small-scale miners would be able to return to work by December.

“We need to go through the process; then maybe after three weeks or a month, we will be able to know the exact date because we were supposed to have started on the 8^th of August… and we have lost eight days.”

“So that is why if we had given a date last week, it would have been wrong, so we want to be very careful not to disappoint them, but definitely they will be able to go to work before Christmas,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Prof. Frimpong Boateng, who’s also for Environment, Science and Innovation, announced that operation vanguard would be the only body to provide security at all mining sites.

“We are going to withdraw ministries and partner ministries’ forces from the grounds. Operation Vanguard will be the only force that will go into mining concessions because we don’t want the situation where a private person will hire somebody to provide security for a company and come into conflict with Vanguard. So we want the situation where operation Vanguard will maintain sanity in all the mining concessions.”

Gov’t launches new software to fight galamsey

The inter-ministerial task-force on Galamsey has also adopted what it calls technology-driven strategies to combat illegal mining.

Key among the technologies is a software called Galamstop, which will monitor the activities of illegal miners.

Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng said the team hopes the innovations will culminate in the eventual lifting of the ban.

“These are things that have been pledged at this conference in the fight against illegal mining. The integration of activities of these regulatory agencies through a computer application we call Galamstop. The Minerals Commission, EPA, Water Resources Commission, Forestry Commission, our current DCEs will be integrated through this software application.”

Source: CNR