Ban on small-scale mining yielded positive results – Dan Botwe

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A member of the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Illegal Mining has said the ban has yielded positive results.

Dan Kweku Botwe said a lot of the river bodies and lands which hitherto were being destroyed were salvaged from the activities of illegal mining known in local parlance as galamsey.

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His comment follows claims by some small-scale miners that the ban did not yield any results rather gave those engaged in galamsey to destroy the lands and river bodies.

They accused government of denying them of their daily bread by placing a ban on them for almost two years.

But Dan Botwe on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Thursday said the fight on galamsey has been won.

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He explained that, operation vanguard deployed to fight illegal mining has seen the progressive end to the pollution of river bodies across the country, which was the main reason for the anti-galamsey campaign.

Dan Botwe who is also the Minister for Regional Reorganization and Development cited how over 1300 illegal miners were arrested to buttress his point.

He stressed that, the ban on small-scale mining has been lifted but only validated and licensed miners would be allowed to mine.

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Mr. Botwe who is also the Member of Parliament for Okere constituency in the Eastern region added that, any person caught in illegal and irresponsible mining will be dealt with in accordance with law.