Business News of Wednesday, 12 February 2020Source: GNARe-organising artisanal small-scale mining is crucial - Blay ThompsonFile photoMr Blay Thompson, National Executive Council Member of the Ghana Mine Workers Union, has said with the changing dynamics of the labour market and the growth in the informal economies, re-organising artisanal small-scale mining is important. He said this would help create alternatives to formal jobs, using the informal mining sector as an approach. He said within the same period, the quantity of locally sourced gold evaluated by the Precious Marketing Mineral Company (PMMC) grew to 1.987 million ounces relative to 1.479 million ounces in 2017. “In 2018 production outturn indicates that share of small-scale mining to total gold production rose to 41.4% in 2018 relative to 34.5% in 2017.”He said the trend was indicative of the contribution of artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) and possible take-over in the years ahead to foster social licence and ensure the future materialisation of the African Mining Vision. Again, he said, license regimes were laborious and cumbersome and lacked requisite knowledge on the part of artisans and owners of concessions about requirements of small-scale mining laws.

Source: GhanaWeb February 12, 2020 01:30 UTC