Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu has disclosed that, 60 to 70 percent of excavators in Ghana are used for illegal mining activities also referred to as Galamsey.
Speaking before the Appointment Committee of Parliament, he said, the excavators do not go into the construction of roads as intended but used for such illegal activities.
With the use of technology, he said the country could be able to determine where the excavators and other equipment are going and for what purposes.
“There are technologies to determine where equipment are working and the country must take advantage of such technologies to stop illegal mining,†he stated.
He added that “the difficulty of the current rampant nature of illegal mining activities is as a result of the fact that we are not applying the rules of the game, that is the law.â€
He said, the country needs to further decentralize the branches of the mineral commission down to the district level to enhance the authorization process.
“Sitting in Accra and issuing mining authorization is worsening the problem because of the long duration. The more authorization is delayed, the more they engage in illegal mining, “he explained.
The country needs to speed up the decentralization process that can grant access to effective monitoring and evaluation to address this problem. Â Â