The lack of a progressive policy to guide exploitation of mineral resources to benefit Ghanaians has been identified as a major contributory factor to the woes associated with the mining industry. And so has regulation. A draft mining policy has been before parliament since 1999 and does not look likely it will be passed into law before the end of the year. To this end, Program Officer, with the Third World Network, Alhassan Atta-Quayson, says mining policy and regulation combined have failed Ghanaians. Mr. Atta-Quason said it was pathetic that Ghana has no idea how widespread the issue of illegal mining is. He was indignant a report in 2005 which quoted illegal miners at 1 million is still pathetically being used without update. “There is not much information about how many are engaged in it, income generation, and amount of taxes they pay including no way to even track it, etc. He is also asking that leaders be taken to task for not having a robust regulation to deal with illegal mining in the country and for also being lax on implementation. He blamed some mining reforms embarked on in the 80's and poor implementation as having fueled the problem. Mr. Atta-Quayson made these revelations on pm:EXPRESS on Joy News which sought to discuss the Chinese factor in the illegal mining problem. On 19th July, a group of irate youth in Manso-Nsiena, in the Amansie West district who were up to the ear with Chinese galamsey operators for polluting the Subin River clashed with them as the Chinese fired some gunshots. But the Minerals Commission said any miner in Manso Nsiena is there illegally as it has not issued any licenses for that restricted area. Kofi Tetteh, Assistant Manager of Small Scale Mining at the Minerals Commission laid the problem squarely at the doorstep of opinion leaders, land owners and even some chiefs who give out their lands without informing the Commission. For now, the Commission has set aside about 77 parcels of land (over 400 acres) designated for small scale mining. He said illegal mining is found on concessions belonging to large scale miners or on restricted areas. Responding to calls that the Chief Executive Officer of the Commission must resign for non-performance, Kofi Tetteh asked “if someone approaches a chief and the chief allows the person to mine illegally, how would the chief executive sitting in Accra know about it? He said the district office in Dunkwa is 3 hours drive away from Amansie West making it almost impossible to keep a close eye on things. “The question we need to ask ourselves is how did those foreigners get there in the first place? He hinted that they are investigating to find out but Alhassan Attah – Quayson still damned the Commission for not being on point. Communications Director of the Ghana China Friendship Association, Henry Yaw Mallet, also on pm:EXPRESS encouraged Ghanaians to be circumspect in how they deal with the Chinese problem especially as Ghana stands to benefit more if it encourages proper Chinese capital and technology inflow into Ghana.