The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), former president John Dramani Mahama, has promised to create a district mining office in all mining areas in the country.
In those district mining offices, he said, there will be officers from the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who will receive applications for mining licenses.
These officers will also supervise the small-scale mining practices to ensure that they conform to the best practices, he added.
Mr Mahama said these while speaking to small-scale miners in Nsutem of the Fanteawkwa South Constituency in the Eastern Region to conclude his Building Ghana Tour of the Region on Thursday, February 1.
He said “Every district will have a district mining office and in the district mining office, we will have a Minerals Commission officer and an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officer.
“If you want to apply for a mining license you apply to your district office, when you are mining they will come and supervise and make sure you are doing the right thing.
“Aside from that, we will employ the graduates from the University of Mines and Technology at Tarkwa, everybody who has a small-scale concession and you are mining we will attach those young mining engineers to you so that they will teach you how to go about mining in safety so that people don’t die on your mining site and you are able to mine properly without misadventure.”