Local News
Government Not Fighting Galamsey – Small Scale Miners
Government officials and the security agencies have not demonstrated fighting illegal mining rather the legal mining, according to the leadership of Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNASSM).
“It is worrying that, government whiles trying to fight illegal mining has in its wake banned all legal mining”, members bemoaned.
In a press release, the Association described the activities of the Anti-Galamsey Taskforce tasked by government to stop illegal mining in the country as mind boggling
“While security agencies and the government would not allow legal licensed miners to work, they have also prevented legal individual members to cover pits on their sites” they alleged.
According to GNASSM, the Minister of Land and Natural Resources, Hon. Peter Amewu has rather fixated on legal miners who had gone through the process to acquire licenses leaving people who had no legal whatsoever to mine.
“It is disheartening to note that our licenses have not been revoked, suspended and or cancelled yet legal miners are bearing the brunt of the so called operation on galamsey and totototo [mining deep in rivers ]”, they voiced out.
“We feel that members of the Association are being unfairly targeted and are losing very expensive equipment because of discretion by security agencies and government officials”, threatening to return to their sites.
Source: otecfmghana.com/Kwabena Danso-Dapaah
