The Monitoring Unit within the Minerals Commission will need to intensify its supervisory duties in order to deal with the illegal mining menace in the country, John Peter Amewu, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has said.
According to him, some individuals who have been given exploration licences have migrated those licences to authorisation permits by mining the minerals. This situation he said was in clear violation of the laws of the country, for which the Minerals Commission will need to intensify monitoring and supervision.
Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Tuesday 14 March, in connection with illegal mining in the country, Mr Amewu said, among other things: “The situation is not just about indiscipline, because if you are given a reconnaissance licence, you are to go and do a reconnaissance survey, not mining. Even if you are given a mining licence, it doesn’t grant you the right to go and do mining until you have been given authorisation by the minister.
“Unfortunately, what we see is that people with exploration licences are migrating it into authorisation permit. Our monitoring unit within the Minerals Commission needs to be tightened to make sure that licences that are given are meant for the purposes they were given.
“This whole issue had to do with discipline. The level of indiscipline is very high and until we begin to change that, goring forward it will be quite difficult for us as a country.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
