A former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Minerals Commission, Tony Aubyn, is advocating for the redefinition of small-scale mining in the county to help sanitise the sector.
Speaking in an interview on Accra-based Asaase Radio, Mr Aubyn said the current definition of small scale mining leaves gaps that can be exploited for illegal mining .
“We need to come up with the real definition of small-scale mining, it only talks about who is qualified to do it, what is the size of land required to do that and the fact that you must not be a foreigner and all that, “ he stated.
“We need to also recategorize it to ensure that there is a mid-tier, if you have a group that are brought together that constitute another band, you can control them better than the way it is done haphazardly, everyone is somewhere and all that,” he added.
Mr Aubyn also wants the introduction of advanced technology apart from drones to help solve the menace of illegal mining in a holistic manner.
“And then we need to use technology because using human intervention is always fraught with challenges, we know it, so we need to use technology when it is necessary to intervene and we need to introduce serious technology in solving the problem,” he averred.
“Not the technology of drone, because I have an issue with the drone, the drone only flies in to tell you that here are people doing galamsey that’s all, it doesn’t stop them, it just goes to give you the information,“ he intimated.
Touching on the just-ended two-day national dialogue on small scale mining, the former CEO of the Minerals Commission called for the depoliticization of illegal mining in order for stakeholders to come out with a solution that will be in national interest.
“The dialogue may have actually highlighted the fact that the issue of small scale and illegal mining is still with us but the information to solving the problem is already there, and we should look at it, and we should look at it dispassionately, depoliticize in a way that when we have a solution it is a national solution and not a sectional solution,” Mr Aubyn opined.
