info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
Peter Amewu, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and the Artisanal and Small Scale Mining Africa-Network (ASMAN) have launched the Multilateral Mining Integration Project (MMIP) – which seeks to sanitise the small-scale mining arena.The Minister stated during the launch that: "This project will be a holistic approach to combat illegal mining and relies on more than just militants and combat actions in mining communities. In fact, MMIP combines Legislations Enforcement Civil Integration and Technical Approach (LECITA) as a sustainable and structured but regimental conjoined concept which will encompass multi stakeholders,".
The Executive Director of ASMAN believes that the small-scale mining sector interest would best be served through the creation of this Multilateral Mining Integration Project (MMIP) to give attention to the sector concerns as well as focus on regulation that will be included into a broader rural development strategy to contribute towards Ghana’s poverty reduction efforts as enshrined in the action plan of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV). Nii Adjetey-Kofi has proposed a more extensive stakeholder consultation regarding the introduction of technology in ASM monitoring like fixing tracking devices on the earth-moving excavators and the use of drones to monitor river bodies.
As articulated by Mr Jiang Zhouteng, Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Ghana, the government of People's Republic of China will support Ghana with the technology to combat the illegal mining menace.
ASMAN also said it supports the introduction of plant pool for small-scale miners as stated in the MMIP project proposals.“This proposal, though not new as it has been attempted over the years by successive governments, will still need political will to succeed. This plant pool support would eliminate the middlemen and gold diggers in the sector and effectively enhance the introduction of the tracking device on the excavators,” it noted.
ASMAN also added that it supports government taking a more consultative approach to the regulation and sustainable development of the artisanal both small and medium-scale mining industry in Ghana.
