Six community mining schemes in galamsey-endemic areas has been launched by government to address the issue of illegal mining.
The schemes rolled out in communities in the Western, Ashanti and Eastern regions of Ghana, is expected to enable willing persons to mine in a responsible manner and create 10,300 direct jobs and 21,000 indirect jobs.
This was revealed by the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr George Mireku Duker, during the regular Meet The Press session organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra on Wednesday, 8 November 2021.
According to him, the government is sanitizing the extractive sector of the country with the introduction of the community mining scheme which paves the way for the commencement of regulated, responsible, and sustainable community mining, aimed at helping to get rid of illegal mining.
“We are creating community mining schemes to hold onto those who will be moved out of the illegal mining and to cushion them as well”, he told journalists.
“So far, we have created these schemes in six mining areas of the Western, Ashanti and Eastern Regions”.
“The schemes are intended to provide livelihoods for members in the mining communities, promote sustainable and responsible mining and therefore prevent illegal mining,” Mr Duker said.
He said community mining had become the main fulcrum around which the nation sought to organise responsible small-scale mining, explaining that it is the reason the government has developed a Small- Scale and Community Mining operational manual to guide the operations of small-scale miners.
