The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu has assured small scale miners that the president of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo is not against small scale mining but rather the methodology some miners have adopted in the practice.

According to him, the NPP government will make sure that Ghanaians benefit from the natural resources by sanitizing the mining operations.

The minister, who was speaking at a ceremony to commission the Secretariat for the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining said small scale miners need to use practices that will conform to international standards in mining.

“The President is determined that as long as we are able to clear the environment and make sure that we move to a way that conform to international practices, the benefit will come to everybody,” he said.

The ten-member Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining which is chaired by Professor Frimpong Boateng is tasked with the responsibility of implementing the government’s strategy on combating the illegal mining menace the country is faced with.

The other committee members are the Minister for Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, the Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, Minister for Regional Reintegration, Dan Botwe, and Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid,

The rest are; Minister for Water Resources and Sanitation, Kofi Adda, Minister for Local Government, Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, Akoto Osei and the for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Kofi Dzamesi.