The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has described as alarming the spate of illegal mining in the country.

According to him, with the needed training, the community mining system instituted by the government can ensure sustainable mining practices.

“This small scaling mining business that we have, if we structure it well and train people, they can do it and do it well without destroying our water bodies.”

He also noted that the issue of galamsey predates the sector minister hence a need for a collective effort to eradicate the problem.

“This minister is new and obvisiouly, he came to meet galamsey … we have to advse the minister to be able to address those issues.”

Asantehene made the remark when the Minister for Land and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi as part of his two-day tour of the Ashanti region.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources says the expansion of community mining will form the core of its activities in the next four years.

Sector Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor, says eliminating illegal mining activities requires fine-tuning existing regulations to meet the needs of small-scale miners.

“Between my office and the minerals commission, we are going to make sure that we expand comminute mining here in Ghana.”

The Minister addressed the media after inspecting some community mining sites in the Ashanti Region.

“It is very evident that the way forward to resolving the issue of illegal small scale mining is community mining.”

Mr Jinapor explains this is “because this community mining sites I’ve just come to witness, clearly they are mining sustainably, they are mining with regards to the environment.”