8 illegal miners arrested for invading concession of Okoben Mining Company

Seven Ghanaians and one Chinese have been arrested at Dominase for invading gold mining concession of the Ghanaian-owned mining firm Okoben Mining Company.

The eight male miners were among hundreds of Ghanaian illegal miners including loads of foreign nationals have managed to invade the legally acquired gold mining concession of Okobeng Mining Company Limited in Dominase in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region.

These unlicensed miners used heavy mining equipment to engage in large scale illegal mining activities on the concession of Okoben Mining Company Limited on the blind side of the state mining regulatory institutions in Ghana including Minerals Commission and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

However, the big question to be asked was who gave the already 31.5 kilometre square mining concession legally acquired gold mining concession by Okobeng Mining Company Limited to these illegal miners to prospect for gold in the area."

These illegal miners who did not even have environmental permits or licenses from the government of Ghana managed to engage in large-scale gold mining activities before the owner of the concession, Nana Okoben Amponsah, got hints and quickly reported the matter to Axim Divisional Police Command.

Following the official report Nana Okoben Amponsah lodged with the police, a joint team of police, Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and National Security personnel from Axim in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality moved to the site to effect the arrest of total of eighgt (8) illegal small scale miners including one chinese national.

The swoop, conducted by the Ghana Police Service in collaboration with the Bureau of National Investigation and National Security,

formed part of the government’s renewed fight against illegal small-scale mining, otherwise known as “galamsey.”

Information available indicates that the illegal miners who invaded the concession were more than ten but some, predominantly foreign nationals, managed to run way at the time the national security officers stormed the site to effect their arrest.

The miners managed to indiscriminately mine gold in the concession without the knowledge of the owner of the company, Nana Okoben Amponsah.

They had also managed to clear large tracts of arable cocoa farmlands in a forest at site of the company and tributaries of the Ankobra River had also been heavily polluted by their activities.

The team confiscated some excavators and many other heavy mining items.

These illegal miners have been sent to the Axim Divisional Police Command and are currently in police custody while the police have commissioned investigations into the matter.

Nana Okoben Amponsah expressed worry that despite the ban on illegal mining activities by the central government some “unpatriotic” Ghanaians are aiding foreigners to mine and destroy his gold mining concession at Dominase he lawfully and legally secured for the past 24 years ago.

“How is it possible that despite the number of caution and announcements, people still have the effrontery to be engaging in illegal mining? What worries me the most is how our own people find it convenient to collaborate with foreigners on this destruction spree.

It is very sad. But I make a solemn promise that we will not rest. If it means going after them every day, then that it is exactly what we will do," Nana Okoben Amponsah told journalists.

However, in a fact-finding mission to the Dominase of where the concession of the company was located, the journalists poke to the traditional authorities including the owners of the land who justified that Nana Okoben Amponsah had bought the concession from the original owners of the land in Dominase

They told the journalists that Nana Okoben Amponsah has the necessary legal documents covering the land at Dominase and that he has been paying royalties to the owners of the Dominase community periodically as it was stated in the contractual agreement with the land owners in the area.

The land owners and principal elders of Dominase have given an account of the numerous contributions that Nana Okoben Amponsah has done to the development of the lives of the people in the community and that he deserves to be commended.

According to them, the company has done a lot of corporate social responsibility projects and programs to bring development to Dominase and its adjoining communities in the municipality.