Professor Kwaku Frimpong Boateng, the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, has disclosed that government has officially lifted the ban on galamsey.
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Professor Boateng, who is also Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining said this to media today.
“There will be many who will say that the water bodies are still polluted and so the ban must be maintained. On the other hand, there will be those who will argue that hundreds if not millions of Ghanaians whose incomes are related to small-scale mining are under extreme pressure that they can no longer cope with the sustained ban”, he said.
President Akufo-Addo banned small-scale mining, popularly known as galamsey, last year.
The ban was to enable the government deal with the illegal ones among them and to also properly streamline the activities of the licensed miners.
Prof Boateng said several measures have been put in place as part of a roadmap to streamline activities in the sector.
“So far, we have trained about 3,000 small-scale miners all at the expense of the government,” he added.
The Minister also said that small-scale miners were trained over the period of the ban at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa on the best mining practices that will not harm water bodies and the environment.
