The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has been furnished with a full list of small-scale mining companies licensed to engage in mining.
This has been disclosed by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor.
According to the Minister, companies found to be engaged in mining but not on the list will be dealt with by the military to be deployed soon.
“What we’ve done is that my Ministry has furnished them with the full list of all licensed small-scale mining concessions and that’s what they’re going to work with. So if they go and they find out that you’re not part of the list they’re supposed to clamp you down and nobody is to interfere,” Samuel Abdulai Jinapor told Asempa FM in an interview.
He further indicated that his Ministry has never interfered with the work of the military and does not plan to do so.
Through the operations of the military, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor is confident that the fight against illegal small-scale mining, often referred to as galamsey will produce the desired results.
“This time around it’s been made abundantly clear, we, and for that matter myself as the Minister and Ministry and other stakeholders, are responsible for formulating the policies relating to mining, which is actually what it should be.
“But when it comes to the implementation of the enforcement regime or the enforcement mechanism by the Ghana Armed Forces, they are supposed to do so independent of the Ministry and of any other entity; Chiefs, religious leaders, influential people, journalists, Members of Parliament, Ministers of State, political leaders.
“Military people are not supposed to take any instruction from anybody. I’ve never done that anyway, even in the past, but I’m saying no interference whatsoever,” the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources stressed.
Over the years, the government through the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources has fought galamsey with various operations led by the Ministry.
Unfortunately, there is more to be done with the continuous destruction of forests and water bodies by illegal miners.
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