Small scale miners incur over $551 m loss due to ban

The Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNSSM), says its members have so far lost over 551 million dollars following the prolonged ban on small scale mining by the government.

The government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources placed a six-month ban on small-scale mining as part of measures to curb illegal mining (Galamsey) in 2017.

However, the association told the press Wednesday that the ban is terribly affecting its operations, resulting in huge losses

The General Secretary of Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners, Godwin Amarh, said the ban is discriminatory  since small scale mining and the large scale mining firms like Newmont, Perseus Mining and others are all regulated under the same mining laws of Ghana.

According to the miners, the ban only affects small scale mining and they see it as counterproductive to the promotion of local enterprise. They maintained that small scale mining is preserved for nationals of Ghana.

According to him, the figure will definitely shoot up if the ban is not reversed, adding that the ban has exacerbated the financial losses of members.

Mr. Amarh argued that the ban on small scale mining has also curtailed the legal right of their members who hold legal titles to mine their concessions. “Our members went through the legally prescribed processes to obtain their licenses,” he said

He also lamented that the ban has resulted in mass unemployment in mining areas across the country.

The small scale miners say they find it extremely difficult to logically understand that a long ban on licensed small scale mining will lead to an end of illegal mining (galamsey)in the country.

 

Ghana | Atinkaonline.com

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.