Ban small-scale mining for 10 years – MP

Government imposed the six-month ban on small-scale mining as part of efforts to end illegal mining and its degrading effects on the environment.But speaking on citi fm, the Cape Coast South MP argued the six month period is too short.

“Six-month ban is not going to restore the water bodies and all that. Let’s do a ban for ten years but then a plan has to be in place to really integrate these people into the one district, one factory that the NPP was talking about. We need to really take the bull basically by the horn.These things are cosmetic. We must have the political will, we must have every will to deal with it.

“It is actually difficult now policing these things as to who is doing it legally and who is doing it illegally but once you have a total ban you should not be doing it, therefore if you are doing it you are basically against the law. What we should be looking at is whether the small scale mining itself should continue in the future. We cannot get the Minister running around the whole country trying to see who is at a Galamsey site, whether the person is Ukrainian or not,” he argued.