Illegal Mining Operation At Prestea

20 ‘Galamsey’ boys buried alive
...Reports say pit caved in, and trapped them
Unconfirmed reports received by news men in Takoradi have alleged that 20 illegal gold miners popularly known as galamsey have been buried alive at Prestea, a mining town in the Wassa west district of the western region when the pit in which they were working in caved in and trapped all of them to death during the X’mas holidays.

Four of the same galamsey operators who have virtually taken over the Prestea township like bees are also reported to have sustained severe injuries in the face in a separate incident as a result of blasting of explosives underground and have been referred to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi for an emergency plastic surgery.

The Chronicle sources intercepted their names as Osmanu Rahaman 25, Ali Kassim 18, Moro Naadi 27, and Mohammed Yawode 27.

A police source contacted at Tarkwa last Wednesday by newsmen confirmed that they have also got hint about the alleged trapping to death of the galamsey operators but could not agree on the 20 alleged victims being quoted

It is still deemed a rumour as there is no official confirmation about this, the police told the reporters who went to Prestea to investigate the story.

Their counterparts at Prestea however confirmed that the aforementioned four people have been rushed to the Komfo Anokye hospital in Kumasi for an emergency medical care.

The officer in charge of the station, DSP Kwadwo Oppong however disagreed on the allegation that the four people mentioned earlier in the story sustained the injuries as a result of illegal blasting they carried out underground.

DSP Oppong told the newsmen who went to him in the course of their investigations that information they the police had gathered which was in fact confirmed by the medical officer in charge of Prestea hospital, Dr. Kennedy Azantilow, was that the electric generator they were using in one of the pits exploded and caught fire, resulting in the injuries they sustained.

He told the reporters that his outfit had intensified investigation into the matter to unearth the truth surrounding the injuries. According to him, he was going to send some of his detectives to the Komfo Anokye hospital where the victims had been referred to verify the authenticity of the blasting allegation.

Investigations carried by the reporters, which included yours truly at Prestea, however revealed that the trapping to death of the 20-galamsey operators during the X’mas holidays is now an open secret in the mining town.

Most of the people interviewed told the newsmen who were from The Chronicle, Graphic and Guide that the alleged deaths of the victims have remained secret because the supposed victims are all migrant workers from the neighboring countries and northern Ghana who have no relatives at Prestea.

The interviewees alleged that the caving in incident occurred at a place called number four bungalow and it covered an area of about two-hundred metres square. The reporters were warned to never set foot on the caving in spot for their own safety though it was their wish to go there for verification. “The galamsey operators are very particular about any stranger they would see around the area so don’t go there,” one of the residents told the reporters.

DSP Oppong who had earlier spoken to the reporters however said they had no information about the alleged caving in of the pits at number four bungalow. He said the only information the police had gathered was that one Oldman Alhassan, 31 was suffocated to death at the number four-bungalow area on December 7, last year.

According to him, another report they received was that one Kojo Essuman, also a galamsey operator died on December 16 last year when sand fell on him underground.

“These are the information we have; nobody has officially informed us about the alleged caving in of the pits,” DSP Oppong told the reporters who kept on asking probing questions.

DSA Oppong told the reporters that those working at the bungalow number four areas could not be described as illegal miners because the management of Bogoso Gold Limited gave the place to them.

Mr. Neil Stevenson, the acting General Manager, however denied that his company ever gave that piece of land to the galamsey people to operate on. He told the reporters who contacted him that the mineral laws of Ghana would not allow him to even do that.

According to him, his company had even appealed to the Wassa West District Security Council to drive away the galamsey people from their concession because of the environmental problems their operations were causing.

He said any death that would occur in the area where these galamsey people were operating would be misconstrued by the international business community to mean that his company was incompetent in mining when as a matter of fact, BGL was not currently working in the area.

According to the GM, his company only asked about 100 galamsey people who approached them to go and bring samples from bungalow number four area for examination to ascertain the ore deposit in the area.

He said two weeks after this order, the number swelled up from 100 to 1,000 people so they were asked to stop but they would not leave the area. Mr. Neil Stevenson said the presence of the galamsey people in the area was giving them a lot of problems and therefore appealed to the government to do something about the situation.

Currently, there are about three thousand estimated galamsey operators working illegally on the BGL concession.