The Minister-designate for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation Dr Kwaku Afriyie, has suggested that Ghana must “severely” regulate excavators to address the problem of illegal mining in the country.

According to him, excavators should be accounted for and banned as a measure to tackle illegal mining.

“We should have a census of excavators in this country, and we should even consider a temporary ban on them. Decommission some of them, sell some of them off and then put a ban on some of them and by attrition get the numbers that we can use for small scale mining,” he told the parliamentary appointment committee when he took his turn.

He added that “We should criminalize the unlicensed manufacture of washing plants because you know that washing plant is going to be used to do galamsey in water bodies.“We should have a law that based on the available resources we have, perhaps no more than 50 square km should be mined at any point in time just like we regulate frequency moderation in this country.”

He assures the committee that he will work towards the legalization should he be given the nod.