Small scale miners in Upper West Region have disassociated themselves from pronouncement made by an known small scale miner that soldiers cannot intimidate them in their illegal mining activities.

Leader of the Upper West Regional small scale Miners Association Alhaji Abdulai Iddrisu at a press briefing in Wa commended government for initiating steps to protect the environment and improving the standards of mining in Ghana.

The Association was reacting to a story published by 3news.com during the recent visit by the Chieftaincy Minister to some traditional councils where a small scale miner by name Ray Sualih had indicated that the soldiers cannot case them from site arguing that a concesing license be withdrawn from Azuma Resources.

But the Upper West Regional small scale miners Association has so far disassociated itself from the comments and said such small scale miners are not members of the association and therefore cannot speak and represent them in any way.

"We the members of the small scale miners in Upper West Region would want to disassociate ourselves from such pronouncement and would want to state that our activities is in line with government's plans to preserve the environment and would want to stay within the confines of the law and operate as small scale miners".

They recognized the operations of Azumah Resources as a licensed company with concessions in the Upper West Region.

Government in 2017 suspended artisanal and small scale mining activities in the country with a reason to come out with a comprehensive structure in the mining sector.

It is in this light that government started training of artisanal and small scale miners in sustainable mining at the University of Minnesota and Technology at Takwa.

They however appealed to the Mineral commission to carry out geological mapping to assist in demarcating blocked out areas for artisanal and small scale mining in all mining areas in the country while waiting for the full implementation of the government road map for lifting the ban on small scale mining.