The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has assured miners and mining communities in Ghana of his commitment to implement policies that will ensure responsible and beneficial mining in the country.

At the beginning of his Ashanti Regional tour on Monday in Atwima Mponua, a mining community, Dr. Bawumia said he is committed to empowering miners to be millionaires through responsible mining by implementing game-changing policies which include a new licensing regime, community mining schemes, establishment of a Mining Development Bank to resource miners and the involvement of the geological survey department for mapping.

"I want you to be millionaires through responsible mining, so we will license you, formalize you, regularize you and supervise you”, Dr. Bawumia said, explaining that traditional rulers at mining communities will be involved in the licensing regime.

"I am also going establish the Minerals Development Bank which will be a bank for small-scale miners so that they can be assisted to buy the right equipment for responsible mining.

"We are also going to introduce community mining scheme and we will get the geological survey department to ensure mining is done at the right place accurately. The geological survey department will come to mining areas to determine where the gold is so there won't be a try and error leading to destruction of the land."

"We will use the mapping to help you determine where the gold is so that there will be responsive mining in every mining community”, he promised.

Dr. Bawumia also assured that part of his steps towards responsible mining will be to curb the use of mercury which will be replaced by gold catcher machines.

"We will not destroy the environment and to ensure that, we will bring mercury-free gold catcher machines to you so that everyone can benefit", Dr. Bawumia said amidst cheers from mining stakeholders during their engagement with him in Atwima Mponua Constituency.