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President John Dramani Maham has tasked the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to ensure that mining is undertaken responsibly and meets communities� needs and expectations. This, he said, must create employment that matches its type, provides fair economic returns to the community, and protects the environment. �Our mining sector needs substantial reform to ensure that we move toward economically and socially sustainable mining,� President Mahama said in his first State of the Nation Address to law-makers which is captured under the theme �Advancing the Better Ghana-Opportunities for Growth�. Touching on illegal mining operations, President Mahama announced that government will rigidly enforce the laws of the country by addressing the illegal invasion of foreigners in the small?scale mining sector. �This problem has been fully investigated, and we have concluded that there is unacceptable collusion between some Ghanaians and these foreigners to circumvent our laws. �A series of decisive measures are underway to purge the system and better regulate small-scale mining in order to create and sustain employment, primarily for Ghanaians,� the president said. The President�s decision on purging the illegal mining sector has come at a time when the Minerals Commission, the sector�s regulator, is seeking to amend existing small-scale mining laws to impose stiffer punishment on any individual that engages in illegal mining. Presently, the law stipulates that anyone who engages in illegal small-scale mining be fined 14,000 penalty units. A unit is valued at GH�12. �Efforts will be made to seek amendment of the law to enhance the level of punishment. �We think that insufficient sanction in the laws covering illegal mining is part of the problem. �We are proposing that illegal mining should be made an offence, and that the punishment should not be a fine but offenders must be made to serve a jail-term without bail. �We want the equipment used by the illegal miners to be confiscated to the state,� Mr. Ben Aryee, Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, disclosed to the Business and Financial Times after a media briefing in Accra. So far, Chinese, Indians, Russians, Spaniards, Burkinabes and other West African nationals have been found involved in the illegal mining business. �Some of our chiefs go to the extent of taking as low as GH�20.00 before illegally awarding lands to these foreign illegal miners operating in their areas.� Mr. Aryee expressed regret at the various Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs), as well as the resource-rich communities, for doing little to assist the Commission and other regulatory bodies to arrest the foreigners engaged in illegal mining.