The Inter-Ministerial Committee on mining is set to vet 1,350 registered small-scale miners across the country in a bid to regularize their operations before it makes recommendations to President Nana Akuffo Addo to lift the ban on mining.
Speaking during the inauguration of the District Mining Committees in Tarkwa in the Western Region, the Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng revealed that the fight against illegal mining though succeeding is fraught with many challenges and therefore tasked the District Mining Committees that have been inaugurated in the 18 mining districts of the Western Region to ensure it implements government’s policy and strategy to fight illegal mining to the letter.
He said the activities of illegal mining is worrying and requires the effort of all citizens to generate the much-expected results.
Last year, the President Akuffo Addo inaugurated the Inter-Ministerial Committee on mining and a secretariat to oversee efforts to fight illegal mining activities countrywide
The Inter-Ministerial Committee is expected to make recommendations to the President on the progress of work on the fight against illegal mining to inform whether to lift the ban on small-scale mining.
Ban on Small-scale mining to be lifted soon
Lands and Natural resources minister, John Peter Amewu has assured that government will lift the ban on small-scale mining by the end of January 2018.
"We expect that at the end of January, ongoing auditing processes will be completed, and cabinet will be requested to approve the lifting of the ban. Once the level of cleanliness of the water bodies is checked, a good number of people have been trained and licenses are validated, the ban will be lifted,", he stated in December 2017.
Read also:  Gov't to vet Small-scale miners in 2018