Former President John Mahama has said he believes “we must regulate small-scale mining to protect the environment and ensure safe mining so that the youth in those communities can have a source of livelihood for themselves and their families”.
As a result, he said he recently, during his tour of the Western Region, where a lot of mining activity takes place, informed them that the next government of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) “will institute a Gold Board, which will work with the University of Mines, Tarkwa and the regulatory agencies to ensure they reclaim land and protect the environment while they mine”.
Additionally, the former President said he intends to seek justice for all small-scale miners whose equipment were seized by the government.
“Recently, when I toured the mining communities in the Western Region, I pledged that justice would be served for those who had been treated unfairly – those who had their excavators, pickup vehicles and water pumps seized and given to NPP cronies to mine. It is their right and I will pursue it”, he said.
Also, he said: “To add value to their products, we must, and we shall refine more gold for export”.
Mr Mahama, who was interacting with businesspeople and entrepreneurs in Accra on Wednesday night, said: “The private sector is invited to invest in this sector, too”.
“Let me assure you, we will involve the Bank of Ghana in certifying quality refined Ghanaian gold and we will work with the KNUST Jewelry Training Centre to establish a first-class unique Jewelry market in Ghana”.
“This is our strategy to create decent jobs in mining communities”, he said
Source: Classfmonline
