Municipal and district assemblies hold the solution to curtailing illegal mining activities in local communities, says former Chief Executive for Amansie West District, Ben Kwaakye-Adeefe.
He therefore wants the assemblies to be proactive in integrating indigenous artisanal miners into mainstream mining activities.
Illegal mining activities, popularly known as Galamsey, have become major economic ventures for people in communities to earn a living.
According to Mr. Kwaakye-Adeefe, attempts to prevent people from undertaking illegal million will be fruitless, unless indigenous are supported miners to form cooperatives.
“They can be recognized if the local authority assists in bringing them together to form cooperatives so that they are also guided as to how to be issued with licenses which will legally allow them to mine in the communities, in which case they’ll be very conscious of the environmental issues in such communities”, he opined.
The former DCE alluded to the success of such a cooperative scheme instituted in the Assembly during his tenure between 2001 and 2008, through which about ten galamsey operatives were registered and guided to source funding from the local banks to take up mining activities.
His comments follow last Thursday’s clash between the youth of Manso-Nsiena in the Amansie West District and some Chinese suspected to be engaged in illegal mining operations in the area.
The Minerals Commission has stated that it has not granted any mining permits to any foreigner or even Ghanaian in the Amansie West District.
The Commission has however expressed commitment to support indigenous people to acquire concessions to venture small-scale mining activities.
There are however concerns that small-scale mining licenses could be ceded to foreigners, who are legally barred from operating in the sector.
Mr. Kwaakye-Adeefe believes the local assemblies would need to strictly apply its bye-laws when the small-scale licenses are sold off to expatriates.
This position is also shared by Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission, Ben Aryeh, who stated that local assemblies have the power to discourage foreigners from evading the country’s small scale mining sector.
Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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