Samuel Abu Jinapor, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources
• The Minister said, All Night mining phenomenon will be stopped soon through the Operation Halt being carried out
• He also noted that regulations are being put in place to fight illegal mining in the country
• According to him, the government is not against small scale mining but rather against the methods being used
Samuel Abu Jinapor, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources has indicated that plans are steadily being made to curb the “All Night” Phenomenon of illegal mining in the country.
According to him, illegal miners have resorted to mining in the night to avoid being caught by the military operatives. He said the illegal miners are aware of the schedule of the military so they do not go to the mining sites during the day anymore.
Speaking at the Minister’s Press briefing in Accra, he noted that, stringent policies and measures will be adopted to ensure that, the night activities of illegal mining will be halted.
“The mining activities in the night, they call it “All night” in the communities we visited, I think it is important that we deal with this “All night” phenomenon of mining activities. We have to be able to do that, it is necessary,” he said
“The ministry of lands and natural resources is very pleased with the work of the Ghana Armed Forces and we continue to be grateful for the work their doing at every opportunity I get, I like to emphasize that we are not against small scale mining, indeed the Lands and Natural Resources ministry is concurrently working on the enforcement mechanism, the enforcement regime as well as getting the issues of reforms, regulations dealt with.
“We’ve brought in some machines which are going to assist in the extraction; we are reviewing the licensing regime so we can decentralize it, the permitting regime, we are trying to involve the chiefs a lot more and a whole other intervention, we are seeking to do, which will ensure that small scale mining regulated,” he said.