A group of concerned small scale miners in the Wassa Amenfi area has petitioned the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to rather regularize the activities of small scale miners than seek for a total ban on their activities.
According to the group, small scale mining provides livelihoods to about 3 million people across the country and hence the need for its preservation.
In a petition signed by its convener, Emmanuel Kwaku Fosu and two others, William Aff copied to the Ghanaian Observer Newspaper, the group intimated their resolve to conform to the standards regulating small scale mining in the country.
According to the group, 30percent of gold produced in Ghana were from sources within the small scale mining enclave.
DEGRADATION:
The group admitted that some of its members had previously engaged in illegal mining and had adopted crude methods in mining for gold.
Other groups within the small scale mining, the group convener stated had destroyed arable lands and important water bodies across the country.
Many of these illegal mining firms as well as small scale miners, according to the group had refused to properly reclaim the lands they were working on and had left it to waste after completing their operations on it.
The group also conceded many have lost their lives in the activities of illegal mining with many suffering brutalities due to confrontations with law enforcing agencies.
ADVANTAGES:
However, the group insisted the advantages and economic benefits of small scale mining outweighed that of the negative effects.
The group believe strict enforcement of laws governing mining and the conduct of the forms of mining by these small scale miners would ensure sanity in the industry.
According to the group, 45 countries on the African continent still practiced small scale mining due to the economic benefits.
Some had perfected the art of land reclamation and could use their former concessions as fertile land for oil palm and food crop production.
