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File photo – Mining
Women in Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM) have appealed to the Government to publicly demarcate and announce all mining sites at the national, regional and district levels.
They also appealed to government to encourage women in small scale mining by allocating portions of available mining lands to them after announcing them.
Mrs. Victoria Adobea Guerrieri, National Women’s Coordinator for the Ghana Association of Small Scale Miners, said this in Accra at a dialogue meeting for ASMs and stakeholders in the sector, in Accra.
The meeting organized by Friends of the Nation, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with support from Oxfam and Ford Foundation was aimed at breaking the barriers to women mine ownership and corruption in the Artisanal and Small-scale Mining Sector.
Mr
Patrick Ojeka, the Director of Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) in the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development disclosed this to NAN on the sideline of a four-day training for local miners in Port Harcourt on Friday.
Ojeka represented by Mr
Etido Umoakpan, an official in the ministry, said that the programme was organised to provide extension services to mining cooperatives, small scale miners and quarry associations in the South-south region.
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The event is one of the Federal Government’s obligations as enshrined in the 2007 Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act to provide extension services for artisanal and small-scale miners.
SPECIAL REPORT: Mining activities robbing farmers of arable land in Plateau
Plateau State is a Nigerian food basket but tin mining activities are destroying farmlands and the youth are turning away from farming. 7 min read
Chris Choji has been a farmer all his life. The 57-year-old who lives in Rakwok, Barkin-Ladi in Plateau State, produces mostly tomatoes, cabbages, pepper, maize, and potatoes. But things have changed.
“Illegal mining activities have made the environment dangerous,” he told PREMIUM TIMES. “The land is no longer fertile and our farmlands have been destroyed, thereby causing food scarcity and making the prices of food skyrocket.”
By Kasim Sumaina
The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has embarked on the development of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) clusters for selected minerals in the six geo-political zones of the country.
The move, it said, is for effective harmonisation of their exploitation to derive the right revenue for government.
The Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah, disclosed this during the handing and taking over ceremony of the landed property donated by the Cross River State Government for the establishment of Artisanal and Small-Scale processing clusters for the South-south zone in Calabar on Monday.