Bawumia’s Solid Mining Policies Attract Miners

…As They Converge At Akwatia This Friday To Launch ‘Miners for Bawumia’

Hundreds of small scale miners, are set to converge at Akwatia in the Easten Region tomorrow Friday, September 20, to officially inaugurate a movement in support of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer’s campaign, following key mining policies Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, recently outlined for the sector.

The inauguration of the group dubbed, ‘Miners for Bawumia’ is scheduled to take place at Akwatia Lorry Station at 2PM, and would be replicated in all mining communities across the country.

It is the first of its kind for any presidential candidate, The Anchor gathered.

The miners, were said to be attracted to the NPP flagbearer’s inspiring mining policies that they believed if implemented, would boost the sector and purge it from the activities of illegal mining commonly known as galamsey.

The Vice President, who outlined his strategy for combating illegal mining menace, said his plan involves sanitising the small-scale mining sector by empowering the Geological Survey Authority (GSA) to prospect for minerals and creating a resource pool of equipment to support sustainable mining practices.

He believes regularizing the sector by setting up Community Mining Schemes with certainties from GSA to engage in responsible mining, is the way to go, instead of chasing them.

Speaking during a tour of Kpone Katamanso on Tuesday September 17, Dr Bawumia, underscored the importance of proactive measures to ensure that mining is conducted responsibly and sustainably.

“So, one needs to look at the whole regime of small-scale mining and sanitise that regime, regularise the regime. Make sure that the Geological Survey Authority of Ghana does the mapping for where all the gold reserves are.

“At the moment people are just doing trial and error, destroying our environment. There is no data backing where they go. They just go and dig, they don’t find, they go to the next place and start digging. they don’t find, they go to the next place.

“But I want us to set up community mining schemes with certainty from the geological survey department that here you have gold. In that case, we can make sure that those who are mining there are regularised. We bring in these gold catcher machines that don’t use mercury and make sure they are not in water bodies.

“So, we direct them and license them into areas so that they do responsible mining and environmentally sustainable mining.

“That is the way you stop this. But if you don’t regulate them then they will hide to do it at night and when they feel people are not watching them, that’s where they will go.

“They will get into the water bodies. But we need to regulate them and we need to also enforce the laws that are already existent,” he stated.

Source: Anchorghana.com