The Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry will submit a proposal to the government for the setting up of a commission to monitor and regulate quarrying and mining activities in the country, said its deputy minister, Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji.

He said the commission would ensure guidelines on quarrying and mining activities were complied with, hence ensure more efficient, safe and responsible activities.

He said a working paper would also be submitted to the cabinet soon on whether there was a need for new law to be introduced to set up the commission.

“The setting up of the commission will take two or three years. We want to standardise the need for quarry and mine managers to have a certificate so that they know how to manage the place.

“We do not want people with no experience breaking rocks using explosives,” he told Bernama after opening the 2018 Quarrying Conference and Exhibition (IQM CONEX 2018) in Putrajaya today.

Tengku Zulpuri said there were states which had yet to implement existing laws and regulations on quarrying and mining.

Citing statistics obtained in 2017, he said there were 299 quarries in the country that released an total of 146 tonnes of various types of aggregates, including granite, limestone and sand.

He said the quarries were in Sarawak (70), Perak (63), Johor (58), Sabah (51), Pahang (30) and Selangor (27) .

-- Bernama