Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has asked Small-Scale Miners in the Upper East Region to engage in regular peer regulation to help bring sanity in the sector.
He explained, “by peer regulation what I mean is you have to regulate one another. When someone is doing the wrong thing, you draw the person’s attention and call the person to order.”
Mr Jinapor stated this during a meeting with the Small-Scale Miners Association in the Upper East Region to among others ascertain their level of operations.
The Lands Minister also called for stronger collaboration among members of the association. He said at the level of the association, “let the association be strong so that you have proper leadership, there is command, there is control and well-apportioned roles”.
The Minister used the platform to crave their cooperation and support to nurture the newly discovered Upper East Regional Resources such as gold and granite into maturity and for the benefit of the people in the region.
“This is an infant mining industry in the Region and is still at its very much in its evolution stage and my dream is that we work together so that industry will become beneficial to the population here in the Upper East Region.”
The Sector Minister also called on the association to closely work with the Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu, and the Minerals Commission to properly regulate and sensitize the sector, in order to prevent further illegal mining activities in region.
The Small-scale Miners petitioned government to expedite action on assigning some mining concessions to members of the association to enable them earn some decent income and also prevent any illegalities in the sector.
By: Felix Cofie.