Two members of the small scale miners have been handed to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for allegedly forging documents to outwit the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).

They were said to have presented the fake documents from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the committee but they were easily identified.

The two suspects are currently assisting the police with investigations.

Meanwhile, the IMICIM has commenced vetting the concessions held by the miners after scrutinizing their documents.

A total of 423 mining concessions were successfully vetted by the committee in the first week of the two-week exercise.

The IMCIM on Monday, November 26, 2018, commenced the final stage of the vetting process.

The committee members were also said to have had issues with the Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) the miners presented during the first week of the exercise.

The exercise is expected to continue from Monday, December 3, 2018 where the next batch of the miners would appear before the committee.

As part of the Government’s efforts to ensure sustainable mining and protect the environment and to regulate the industry also, an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining has started vetting all small-scale miners in the country.

The initiative is in furtherance of government’s agenda to eliminate illegal small-scale mining and minimise the impact of such activities on the environment.

It is also part of the roadmap towards the lifting of the ban on small-scale mining.