The Acting Managing Director of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), Sammy Gyamfi, says government can only end illegal mining (galamsey) if it has complete control over excavators used in mining.
He revealed that the government plans to setup a plant pool of environmentally friendly equipment and use that equipment to fight illegal mining.
“The surest way of fighting galamsey is controlling the excavators because without the excavators you cannot engage in the mining that we are doing. So if you are the one giving the equipment to the miner then you can control what it is used for.”
He revealed the government will purchase excavators and rent it out to miners. The excavators will then be operated by government trained operators.
“So when you ask our stated trained and paid operators to go and engage in illegal mining activities which destroy water bodies, they will refuse.”
With the fear of these excavator operators going against the law, the government will proceed to install Geo-Fence trackers in the excavators, which will be monitored, and any excavator that goes beyond its designated coordinates will automatically shut down.
“Now, the coordinates of every concession are on the Mining Cadastre Administration System (MCAS) platform of the Minerals Commission. So, we have the coordinates of all the concession which have been inputted in the excavator. So, if I give you an excavator to operate and the excavator goes beyond the coordinates, the excavator will shut down.”
The excavators will also have cameras installed which will give you real time videos of what is happening on the site, and then alert government of any illegal mining activity ongoing on the site.
Sammy Gyamfi added that the state will set up processing plants which do not need water to operate and that will go a long way to preserve the nations water bodies.
Galamsey activities have posed a menace to the nation, as they have destroyed water bodies and land resources in Ghana. At the height of the galamsey menace, Ghanaians were warned the nation will have to import potable water in the coming years if the menace was not curbed.
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The Acting Managing Director of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), Sammy Gyamfi, has asserted that the surest way to end illegal mining in the country is by controlling the excavators used by the miners.
He revealed the government’s plan to purchase excavators for… pic.twitter.com/ZAbcCm4ZMW
— EDHUB🌍ℹ (@eddie_wrt) March 3, 2025
