{"id":313471,"date":"2017-04-24T09:53:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T09:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=313471"},"modified":"2017-04-24T09:53:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T09:53:57","slug":"alternative-livelihood-programme-for-illegal-miners-to-cost-10m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/04\/alternative-livelihood-programme-for-illegal-miners-to-cost-10m\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternative livelihood programme for illegal miners to cost $10m"},"content":{"rendered":"
Government\u2019s five-year Multilateral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP), an alternative livelihood programme for illegal miners, is expected to cost $10 million.<\/p>\n
The programme is also underway, according to Mr. John Peter Amewu, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, who said the programme is looking at a “margin of not less than $10 million when it gets to its peak.”<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”BXmjpudAHhye60yj1A2uEiYcwuqNPl6Q”]Speaking to\u00a0Citi News’\u00a0<\/strong>Kojo Agyeman during his two-day tour of some illegal mining sites in the Western Region, Mr. Amewu, disclosed that \u201cthe process is ongoing. We have already started, we have already awarded contracts, we are talking to the small scale mining association, I am engaging them to start regrouping some of these guys, so it is an ongoing process.\u201d<\/p>\n The programme will pivot around the application of technology and enforcement of the law as well as supervision.<\/p>\n Mr. Amewu stressed that the government was not against small-scale\u00a0mining, but wants illegal miners to work in already explored and demarcated mining sites.<\/p>\n “What the project is going to do is to get these same factory hands who were previously engaged in this activity to together to come and work in an area that has been already explored. We are going to put in place a central processing plant for them where they will mine, and the ore from the mining will be passed through the processing plant and it will be for a fee,\u201d the minister explained.<\/p>\n