Mr. Stephen Piedu, Chief Inspector of Mines at the Minerals Commission, has asked sand and stone winners in the Upper West Region to acquire the necessary documents to enable them to operate.

He said, task forces were being set up throughout the country to enforce mining laws, and persons found to be operating without permits and mining rights licenses would be arrested and prosecuted.

Mr. Piedu issued the caution when he met sand and stone winners at Wa, during a tour of the region to acquaint himself with activities and challenges of industrial and large scale miners in the area.

He educated them on the Mineral and Mining Act 703 of 2006 and the mining regulation.

Mr. Piedu said, while sand and stone winners operating in Southern Ghana were conforming to all the mining laws and regulations, their counterparts in the Northern, Upper West, and Upper East Regions were operating without regulations.

He said: “Any person who want to mine sand or stone must first send a site plan of the land acquired to the Minerals Commission for the acquisition of a license, permit and approval from the District Assembly and the Environmental Protection Agency before operations can start.”

Mr. Piedu appealed to sand and stone miners to form associations to promote unity and to facilitate the acquisition of documents that would allow them to operate.

The sand and stone miners complained that they were facing difficulties in the acquisition of documents because they had no capacity to acquire land for their operations, and depended on land owners, who released their lands to them for a token to be paid on each trip of sand or stone mined.**