News:
September 15, 2017
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu has revealed that small scale miners across the country will soon be registered biometrically.
He noted that the move is to help his Ministry to effectively monitor activities of the small scale miners in the country.
“We are going to give the small scale miners a license and an ID card to make sure with the ID we can locate them”, Mr. Amewu said.
The sector Minister’s announcement comes in the wake of demonstration against governments six month ban on all forms of small scale mining.
And noted that the concerns of the miners of the small scale miners will be addressed, “they have to be patient the ban will come to an end in six months”.
Hundreds of small scale miners in the Ashanti region last week Tuesday demonstrated against the ban, arguing that the suspension had elapsed.
“This ban is a six month ban and if you do recollect, it started somewhere in May and we expect it to end somewhere in October and so if they really have to adhere strictly to the directive, we should be expecting the ban coming to an end in October. I am expecting my good friends and small scale miners to exercise patience.
Government in April imposed a six-month ban on all forms of small scale mining as part of measures to deal with illegal mining, popularly referred to as Galamsey.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com