Govt launches new committee for small-scale miners

The minister for lands and natural resources Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has pronounced an initiative intended at reconstituting and sanitizing the country’s small scale mining sector.

As part of the government’s effort to advancing responsible and sustainable mining practices, the government through the Ministry of Land and Natural resources has established a Technical Small-Scale Mining Review Committee to ensure that operations in the sector cohere to environmental and legal standards.

The minister on Wednesday, March 19, made this announcement during a press briefing on the ministry’s policy and programmes, where he highlighted the newly formed committee which is chaired by the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, will be responsible for conducting a thorough review of all small-scale mining across the country.

Mr. Armah-Kofi further underscored that, the committee is to audit all licenses to ensure that they follow due processes before precisely acquiring them, and that they also meet all conditions of continuous validity with respect to how they followed the rules on the environment and then again how they have dealt with the issue of our water bodies, our forest reserves and land preservation.

The minister concluded saying, the committee will again ascertain that, permitting fees and all other requirement processes from government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Minerals Commission and the Water Resources Commission have been met. Adding that all these standards are going to be the steered before licenses acquisition to be able to sustain and preserve our water bodies and the natural environment.