The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Small-scale Miners, Godwin Armah, is appealing to the government not to generalize the ban on mining activities in Ghana.
According to him, not all miners contribute to the destruction of the environment, especially small-scale miners.
In an interview with Nana Kwadwo Jantuah on Nhyira FM’s “Kuro yi mu nsem” show, he revealed that small-scale miners have gone through the right processes to acquire their permits and do not practice illegal mining which is currently a threat to the country’s ecosystem.
“Most small-scale miners dig boreholes for their work and don’t destroy water bodies,” he stated.
Mr. Armah believes the destruction of lands and water bodies are due to the illegal miners and large-scale mining in the forest reserves.
He explained there are no laws in Ghana that give small-scale miners the right to enter forest reserves.
“The laws concerning mining, that is the Minerals and Mining Act do not allow any small-scale miner to obtain license to mine in forest reserves. All licenses for mining in forest reserves are given to large-scale miners,” he said.
He added “the laws say we can’t manage the forest reserves well, so they don’t allow us. All the mining companies in the forest reserves are large scale. Small scale land should not be more than 25 acres”.
Godwin Armah stated that there are blocked-out areas for small-scale miners after going through the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the Minerals Commission gives the license and the sector Minister signs.
“They don’t give prospecting license for small-scale mining. After doing the EIA, they map out the blocked-out areas, then the miners go and apply for their permits at the District Lands Commission to get their EPA, digging permit and water resource before you can proceed,” he said.
The General Secretary of the National Association of Miners also expressed concern about the destruction of land and water bodies.
“Looking at the way our rivers and lands are being destroyed, we the miners are also concerned a lot about the situation. It is appalling,” he bemoaned.
He hopes a solution is found soon without banning small-scale mining.