Rev. Dr Joyce Aryee has thrown her weight behind the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, for his role in fighting illegal mining, popularly called ‘galamsey’, in the country.
According to the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, ‘galamsey’ is illegal and whoever is found plying that trade should be punished.
“Galamsey is illegal and what is illegal should not be tolerated and I think the minister has taken the right course which is to stop illegal mining. You should be punished if you break the law,” she stressed.
It would be recalled that in late March 2017, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Amewu issued a three-week ultimatum to all illegal miners to end their trade or face the wrath of the law.
“Since the three-ultimatum was put in place, at least over 545 of these earth-moving machines have been surrendered. This means they know they are doing something illegally,” Rev Dr Aryee said.
Rev Dr Joyce Aryee spoke exclusively to The Finder on the sidelines of the Accra Mining Network’s first quarter gathering which discussed ‘The Outlook of Ghanaian Mining Industry.’
She said a lot of people misunderstand the war on ‘galamsey’ to mean the war on small-scale mining and reiterated that those who are being stopped are not small-scale miners but illegal miners, without licences.
“I think people should go by the law. The law allows people to mine on a small scale and they should go for licence to do that. If you want to mine, go to the Minerals Commission, get yourself a licence and follow regulations and get Ghana to benefit from mining rather than doing things that destroy,” Rev Joyce Aryee explained.
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