The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has outlined a preventive strategy to combat illegal mining, focusing on sanitizing the small-scale mining sector.
His plan includes empowering the Geological Survey Authority to prospect for minerals and establishing a resource pool of equipment to promote sustainable mining practices.
Speaking at Kpone Katamanso on Tuesday, Dr Bawumia responded to a question about his approach to addressing illegal mining, commonly known as ‘galamsey.’
He emphasized the importance of proactive measures to ensure responsible and sustainable mining.
“We need to look at the entire small-scale mining regime and regularize it. The Geological Survey Authority of Ghana should map out all gold reserves. Currently, people are engaging in trial and error, causing environmental destruction. There’s no data guiding their activities—they dig without finding anything and move to the next place.”
Dr. Bawumia proposed setting up community mining schemes based on data from the Geological Survey Department to ensure miners operate in designated areas with known gold reserves.
This would enable proper regulation and the use of environmentally friendly equipment like gold catcher machines that avoid the use of mercury and do not contaminate water bodies.
“We need to direct and license miners into specific areas to ensure responsible and environmentally sustainable mining,” he added. “If we don’t regulate them, they will hide and mine at night or in places where they think they’re not being watched, often in water bodies. We need to enforce existing laws to stop this.”
Source: Adomonline
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