The Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners, GNASSM, has accused the Ghana Chamber of Mines of not working in the interest of small-scale miners.
According to the association, the action of the chamber is rather unfortunate considering its role within the mining sector to represent the collective interests of stakeholders involved in mineral exploration, production and processing in Ghana.
This follows the Chamber's caution to stakeholders, including small-scale miners against pressuring the government into lifting the ban on small-scale mining.
The general secretary of the Small-Scale miners association, Godwin Armah in response to the statement, chastised the Chamber of Mines saying they are insensitive to their needs.
"We are seeing it clearly from the statement that was made, that the Chamber of Mines is against indigenous mining. It is unfair to ask us not to pressurize government into lifting the ban after almost a year. Our plea is that government should allow the small-scale miners to continue working but ensure that the right thing is done and the laws are strictly enforced to deal with illegalities. The Chamber of Mines has to review their stance because when it comes to engaging with government on behalf of the small'scale miners, they have not been productive." he said.
 Small-scale miners yet to be vetted by Inter-ministerial mining committee
The Inter-Ministerial Committee on mining is set to vet 1,350 registered small-scale miners across the country in a bid to regularize their operations before it makes recommendations to President Nana Akuffo Addo to lift the ban on mining.
The Inter-Ministerial Committee is expected to make recommendations to the President on the progress of work on the fight against illegal mining to inform whether to lift the ban on small-scale mining.
Ban on Small-scale mining to be lifted in January
Lands and Natural resources minister, John Peter Amewu in December 2017, assured that government will lift the ban on small-scale mining by the end of January 2018 after the completion of an auditing process and subsequent approval by cabinet is given.