Kenyan County Ordered Temporary Shutdown of Gold Mining Activities

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Isiolo County, Kenya administration has ordered to shut down gold mining activities temporarily at Kom area. This is to facilitate environmental audit processes.

Announcing the decision, Geoffrey Omoding, Commissioner-Isiolo County noted that it has come to the attention of the authorities that miners were using heavy machines to crush stones in their artisanal activities. Also, it has been identified that the mining activities cause significant environmental impacts.

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The Commissioner urged those involved in mining activities to cease operations until the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) authorities complete their environmental impact assessment and release ecological guidelines. The miners will be allowed to resume mining activities only upon issuance of guidelines. At the same time, he instructed all gold miners in the region to obtain all relevant government licenses before they resume their activities.

He announced that the government has decided to post an assistant County Commissioner to the Korn area, which will prevent people from commuting to Merti town in seek of government services.

The NEMA officials have been ordered to carry out the assessment works and submit a report at the earliest.