‘Our members have licenses, we don’t mine in water bodies or forest reserves’ – Small-scale miners reject calls for ban

The Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Mining has emphasized that the solution to irresponsible mining lies in the political will of chiefs and successive governments, not in a total ban on indigenous small-scale miners.

Addressing a press conference in the Eastern Region, the General Secretary of the Association, Godwin Armah, defended the operations of its members, insisting they are not the culprits of illegal mining activities.

“We need to consider the ban. The solution lies in the district, our chiefs should have the political will, they compromise with those chanfan operators to destroy our environment. Our members have licenses, we don’t mine in water bodies or forest reserves,” he said.

 

He added “Politicians should stop politicising the issue. They need to declare a stand on whether they want to collapse the indigenous sector. We do belong to the extractive sector and are aligned with other sectors of the economy.

Mr Armah argued that action should be directed toward the real perpetrators, whose data the regulators may not have for monitoring and assessment.

“The Potrase area being mined on the Densu River is for large scale miners, not us. At the Asamankese area on the Pra River it is also them, not us. We should not be held liable for others’ wrongdoing, we are ready to liaise with all stakeholders to find lasting solutions. The Environmental Protection Agency, Minerals Commission and Water Resources Commission assess our concessions daily, because they do not have data on illegal mining concessions, they cannot check their illegal line of operations,” he alleged.

The calls for a total ban on mining have intensified due to the worsening condition of river bodies and the devastation of farmlands.

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