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Small scale miners to demonstrate over ban on illegal and small scale mining

By Maame Aba Afful
Lift ban on small scale mining-Miners to demonstrate
Lift ban on small scale mining-Miners to demonstrate
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Small scale miners in the Ashanti Region are expected to demonstrate on Tuesday, September 12, to protest the continued ban on their activities.

A six-month ban on illegal and small-scale mining was placed by government earlier this year, with the intention to sanitize the system.

However, small scale miners are protesting the directive on grounds that the government has denied them of their source of livelihood without making provisions for an alternative.

 One of the leaders of the intended demonstration, Bismark Okrah, said the small scale miners will go onto the streets to drum home their concerns.

"We are hitting the streets of Kumasi to sound our dissatisfaction to the President that we have stayed home for the past six months. The duration of the ban has expired so we want to remind the President to reinstate the indigenous small scale miners," said Okrah.

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"We are hungry, our families are suffering. For the past six months, only God knows what we have gone through. As small scale miners we are ready to comply with all the laws on mining," he added.

Meanwhile District Chief Executive for Amansie West, William Asante Bekoe, said the aggrieved miners must exercise patience as the government is yet to regularize the mining activities.

"The government is about to announce new modalities in regularizing the extraction activities. Other sources of livelihood will be introduced to sustain the youth with employment," the DCE assured the aggrieved youth.

The small scale miners say that government has not addressed the issue despite the expiration of the six-month ban.

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