The ban on small-scale mining across the country has for the third time, been extended by the Ministry of Lands and Natural resources.
 According to the minister for lands and natural resources, John Peter Amewu, although the ban on small-scale mining was scheduled to be lifted at the end of January 2018, the miners have not been able to meet the set target.
A six-month ban was placed on small-scale mining in January 2017 to curtail the devastation of water resources and forest reserves as a result of galamsey activities.
But in October 2017, the minister after an inspection of some lands across the country extended the ban for another three months. The announcement triggered various protests by the Small-scale miners association.
He however assured that the ban on small-scale mining will be lifted in January 2018 once some conditions are met.Â
"We expect that at the end of January, the auditing processes will be completed, and cabinet will be requested to approve the lifting of the ban. Once the level of cleanliness of the water bodies is checked, a good number of people have been trained and licenses are validated, the ban will be lifted," he revealed in December 2017.
However, on March 7, 2018, Mr Amewu speaking at an awards ceremony by the Bureau of Research, Governance, Commerce and Administration, revealed that the ministry had to extend the ban for the third time after small-scale miners failed to meet the target set for them to have it reviewed.
“The ban has invariably been extended because we have not lifted it. We met with the Association and clearly, our targets have still not been met. The ban is still in force until we have reviewed our performance and given an indication of what to do next.â€
The Ministry is yet to announce the time span of the third extension of the ban on small-scale mining.
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