Banning small scale mining is a lazy man’s approach – Small Scale miners to Okyehene

President for concerned small scale miners Association Ghana, Michael Kwadwo Peprah, has reacted to Okyehene’s proposal of banning small-scale mining for a year as he states that such a move is a lazy man’s approach to fixing the situation at hand.

Okyehene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin proposed the placement of a year moratorium on the mining industry for the state to probe the sector for reforms.

The Okyehene said the fight against illegality in the mining sector must be wholistic to forestall future recurrence and ensure sustainable mining.

But Michael believes otherwise as he tells Happy FM’s Don Prah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ show: “There is always the freedom of speech and just like what the Okyehene has done, we can all express our views. I do not agree with him.

This is because the ban has already happened. If you will recall, in 2017 it was banned, getting to 2 years and now we are back to square one. So doing the same thing with the ban is a lazy man’s approach”.

Michael was of the view that the fight against galamsey has not been successful because of administrative problems. Illustrating his point, he noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for example lacks the manpower and resources to make checks and ensure that galamseyers are not destroying the land and water bodies.

“Their [EPA] workers are not even up to 200. The cars that the EPA will use to monitor is not even up to 30 and then this same organization is supposed to check that our environment is safe. So how will they be effective? With these circumstances, they can never be effective”.

Considering the situation, the President of the Association proposed that state institutions be empowered so that they can be effective in the fight against galamsey.

Small-scale mining activities were suspended for over a year to sanitize the sector and to deal with the menace of illegal mining head-on. But even after the long ban, illegal mining still persists, compelling the government to escalate its efforts in a renewed fight.