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Lands and Natural Resources Minister-Designate, Samuel Abu Jinapor has offered a lasting solution to illegal mininng in Ghana.

Lawyer Jinapor says community mining is the surest way to nip illegal mining in the bud.

Government introduced the Community Mining Scheme, a mining model, last year and it's aimed at creating jobs for beneficiary communities.

As part of the scheme, the government gave the green light for the commencement of regulated and sustainable mining at Adomanu in the Ashanti Region under the Community Mining Scheme.

The scheme is to create about 16,000 jobs nationwide; so far, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has issued 55 mining licenses to some communities in the Western, Ashanti, Savannah, Eastern and the Ahafo Regions. 

The sector Minister-designate was well convinced about the importance of the scheme saying, " . . we need to pursue this concept of community mining. I think it's very important. I've looked at the literature. I've taken a lot of briefings. I've examined the situation and I'm more than fully persuaded that the perfection . . . of community mining in our country will go a long way in dealing with the incidences of illegal small-scale mining".

''We have gotten to a point where we require a bi-partisan broad-based multi-sectoral effort in dealing with illegal small-scale mining. We need a broad-based support for the national policy on illegal small-scale mining. So, what's the policy? The policy is that we build here in Ghana a sustainable viable regulated small-scale mining which has regard for the environment and do away with illegal small-scale mining which degrade the environment," he added.

The Minister-designate further demystified issues of legal and illegal small-scale mining.

"Illegal small-scale mining simply means [1] you don't have a licence to mine. [2] Even when you have the licence to mine, you're not mining according to the protocols for legal small-scale mining. [3] On the specific issue of excavators and excavating and the rest, the law as it stands today permits deep mining . . . So, the contours of legal small-scale mining permits a whole lot but only that we do it within the confines of the law and regulations.," he said.

Samuel Abu Jinapor made these comments during his vetting by the Appointments Committee in Parliament on Wednesday, February 24, 2021.