The founder and the leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana LPG, Percival Kofi Akpaloo, has pledged to restructure the small-scale mining (galamsey) industry to make it more efficient, environmentally friendly, and sensitive to the needs of the host communities when given the nod in the December 2024 polls.He said that the restructure would also make the activity a means of employment for young people, particularly those in mining regions.

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“I believe we must regulate small-scale mining to protect the environment and ensure safe mining so that the youth in those communities can have a source of livelihood for themselves and their families,” Kofi Akpaloo exclusively told Neat FM.He further emphasized that he would put more measures in place to safeguard the environment while making sure that small-scale miners operated lawfully without intervention from the police.

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Under the next LPG government, he said, graduates and experts in mining would be deployed to mining communities to train and assist small-scale miners on best mining practices to help eliminate accidents and the hazards associated with illegal mining.Kofi Akpaloo said it was the right of people in mining communities to harness the benefits from the resources bequeathed to them by nature with the help of the government.

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He assured the people that the next LPG government would create the opportunity for miners to have their gold refined in the country to help boost the economy.“To add value to their products, we must, and we shall refine more gold for export. Let me assure you that we will involve the Bank of Ghana in certifying quality refined Ghanaian Gold."

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