The Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners (GNASSM) has appealed to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) to speed up the processes that would lead to the lifting of the ban on legitimate small-scale mining activities in the country.

The association said this was very urgent since the 18-month ban by government had imposed untoward hardships on them and their dependents.

It expressed appreciation to President Akufo-Addo and his administration, especially the IMCIM, for ending what it described as the ‘soon soon’ mantra by launching the roadmap to lift the ban on legitimate small-scale mining activities.

It also congratulated Operation Vanguard and the national GNASSM Taskforce for the successes chalked so far as improvements in some river bodies that got polluted by illegal dredgers were now clear to all.

“GNASSM will continue to support Operation Vanguard with our national taskforce,” it noted, and also appealed for its taskforce to be partly resourced.

GNASSM also urged the government to consider the financial burden on its members, as well as licensed miners in general as a result of the ban on small-scale mining.

“GNASSM wishes to draw the attention of the government to that fact and would be grateful if the cost of transporting the equipment to a centralized location as directed by IMCIM will be borne fully by the government.”

Verification of licences

The association also urged its members and licensed miners to make available relevant mining documents for the vetting to speed up the process.

Appeal

GNASSM further appealed to all small-scale miners to join it, pledging not to sit down unconcerned anymore.

It said all non-members of GNASSM in the over 3,000 licensed mining districts that had been trained by IMCIM would be registered and grouped into cooperatives for them to participate in the community mining programme under the association.

New face of regulation

Noting that the time of idling and minding their own businesses was over, GNASSM pledged that it would show leadership in self-regulating or self policing the small-scale mining industry in Ghana.

It said it would use technology, among others, to monitor and capture critical compliance, mining and production matrices for future data driven decision-making in the industry, while also it would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Minerals Commission to streamline its self-regulation drive and code of practice.

Additionally, it promised to embark on a campaign and resource support project to encourage the majority of its members, if not all, to produce ecological gold (i.e. gold mined and produced without the use of harmful chemicals for a better premium on the world market.