Small-scale miners to ’expose politicians’ involved in illegal mining

The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners (GNASSM), Godwin Armah has said the association is ready to expose any politicians and persons either supporting or involved in illegal mining activities.

‘’We are ready to report and expose those behind these illegalities because we cannot sit down and keep quiet for someone to support the illegalities whereas persons with legitimate licenses have made their investments only for a ban to be placed on them,’’ he stressed.

The Association said the situation is rather unfortunate, considering the role of small-scale miners within the sector.

Armah made this known yesterday, August 28, during a media engagement in Accra following the 18-month long ban on small-scale mining by government.

Government, last year placed an initial six-month ban on artisanal and small scale mining following the prevalence of illegal mining popularly known as “galamsey’’ across the country.

The ban however has faced an extension in order for government to fully sanitize the mining sector.

Emmanuel Yirenkyi-Antwi, Director of Operations at GNASSM announced a roadmap by the association to allow self-regulation and self-policing within the sector.

The roadmap includes; (i) peer to peer review mechanisms to enforce laid down laws and regulations through its task force and internationally accepted and responsible mining practices.

(ii) Use of technology through Optimum RM (Optimizing responsible mining) software to monitor and capture critical compliance and mining production matrices for future data-driven decision making in the sector.

(iii) Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Minerals Commission to streamline the self-regulation drive and code of practices for miners.

(iv) Embark on a campaign and resource support project to encourage the majority of its members to produce ecological gold (gold mined and produced without the use of harmful chemicals).

(v) To police small-scale mining communities, the natural environment and the occupational health and safety of a child labor free mining environment.

(vi) Work with the appropriate authorities to come up with a tax regime that will be appropriate with various small-scale mining operations.

Yirenkyi-Antwi called on the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) set up by government to speed up the process for the lifting of the ban indicted in its roadmap to allow members of the GNASSM return back to work as soon as practicable.