Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has promised that the next government he would lead will establish District Mining Offices in all mining areas across the country to enable officers from the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) receive and process applications for licenses for small scale miners .
He said, the officers would supervise the small-scale mining practices to ensure that they do not go contrary to laid down rules and procedures.
Mahama gave this promise during his engagement with small-scale miners at Nsutem in the Fanteawkwa South Constituency to wrap-up his tour of the Easter Region as part of the his ‘Building Ghana Tour’.
He believes the move to set up district mining offices will gradually curb the menace of illegal mining or galamsey in the country.
“Every district will have a district mining office and in the district mining office, we will have a Minerals Commission officer and an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officer.
“If you want to apply for a mining license you apply to your district office, when you are mining they will come and supervise and make sure you are doing the right thing.
“Aside from that, we will employ the graduates from the University of Mines and Technology at Tarkwa, everybody who has a small-scale concession and you are mining we will attach those young mining engineers to you so that they will teach you how to go about mining in safety so that people don’t die on your mining site and you are able to mine properly without misadventure.”
By Lawrence Odoom