The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Honourable Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has assured members of the National Concerned Small Scale Miners Association of the Government’s commitment to protecting and supporting responsible small-scale mining across the country.

The assurance came when the association paid a courtesy call on the Minister on Wednesday 5th August, 2026 at the Minister’s conference room.

The delegation was led by its President, Mr. Michael Peprah commended the Minister for the roadmap introduced to reform the mining sector.

He also raised key concerns affecting members of the association.

These included alleged harassment by some security personnel of small-scale miners, the seizure of excavators, delays in accessing excavators at the port, and challenges in acquiring small-scale mining licenses.

Responding to the concerns, Hon. Buah said the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) remains the only institution mandated to handle matters related to illegal mining.

He also outlined the process for registering excavators.

According to him, all excavators must be registered and fitted with tracking devices to improve monitoring and accountability.

On mining licenses, the Minister said the introduction of District Mining Committees would help speed up the licensing process.

He explained that the committees would carry out the required investigations into prospective mining concessions before submitting recommendations to the Minerals Commission for final approval.

The Minister also highlighted the Government’s policy on medium-scale mining, which allows foreign investors to partner with Ghanaian companies to undertake mining operations.

Addressing concerns about RCOMSEP, he indicated that training programmes had already been organised for some small-scale miners.

He assured the association that more stakeholder engagements would be held to strengthen collaboration and improve implementation of the programme.

“We remain committed to protecting legitimate small-scale mining and will continue to work with stakeholders to build a responsible, transparent and sustainable mining sector”, the Minister said.

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