Ghana Govt to support small mining firms to become large-scale ventures

The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Mines, George Mireku Duker was speaking at the inauguration of the Wassa Amenfi East Local Mining Committee (LMC) on March 17, 2022 and has stated that the government is committed to create local champions in the small-scale mining sector.The initiative is an arrangement between the government and some banks to support local people with the needed capital to mine responsibly and stop involving foreigners in the small-scale mining (SSM) sector.

He revealed that the support for the local entrepreneurs to grow was premised on the conviction that they would graduate into large-scale miners and that the initiative would be facilitated by the Minerals Commission.
"Once we do that, we can retain most of mining proceeds in the country.”
According to him, some local banks had set aside funds to support the purchases of mining equipment for operators in the small-scale mining industry."As I speak to you, we cannot say anything positive about our river bodies, and it is really worrying. We must take up the challenge to enforce systems that will control mining activities from destroying these rivers,” .
"We cannot do this without your support, so I want to urge you to work with other stakeholders to get rivers cleared", he said as he urgedurged LMCs to help the Minerals Commission to regulate and regularise the small-scale mining sector in the metropolises, municipalities and districts in mining regions., stating that it was important for the committees to monitor the activities of operators of the community mining schemes (CMSs) and licensed small-scale mining concessions to bring sanity to the sector. He also urged the LMCs to help the Minerals Commission to regulate and regularise the small-scale mining sector in the metropolises, municipalities and districts in mining regions. He also stated that the ministry had started procuring mercury-free machines to support responsible mining in the sector and that the government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, would continue to work towards sanitising the SSM sector.He also said the committee would work diligently to identify viable concessions for the CMSs to promote local participation in the SSM sector.
The MCE called for the needed support in terms of logistics for the LMC for it to perform that role.