The Ghana Chamber of mines is asking government to establish a fund and formulate a national policy on small scale mining.Illegal small scale mining or “Galamsey” has gained such a bad reputation that, its contribution is often ignored. The Chamber of Mines reports that small scale mining produced a third of the gold mined in Ghana last year, that’s about 1.2 million ounces. This is why The Chamber is of the view that “galamsey” operations need to be streamlined.President of the Chamber, Dr. Tony Aubynn in an interview with JOYNEWS on MultiTV said such a fund will help small scale miners overcome the challenge of accessing finance for their operations because of the misconceptions people have about them.However, the small scale miners see the delays in acquiring a license as one of the biggest impediments and the main reason why many of them end up operating illegally.The judiciary, security agencies, the minerals commission and the ministry of lands and natural resources were all represented at a one-day forum at the Holiday Inn in Accra, to deliberate on ways to mainstream small scale mining into the country’s mining industry.Apart from the request for a national policy on mining and the small scale miner’s fund, the Chamber of Mines wants government to review and update ACT 703 of the 2006 minerals and mining act to conform to modern trends. It also wants training and education of illegal miners on mining laws, the dangers associated with their operations and its devastating impact on the environment to hopefully discourage them.Current, there are about 450 illegal miners in each of the nine mining districts