Minister orders police to confiscate galamsey equipment

Mr. Mike Hammah, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources on Tuesday directed the Police to confiscate the equipment of illegal miners at Bisicheim in the Western Region.

The directive forms part of measures to stop illegal miners (galamsey operators) from depleting the forest reserves and polluting water bodies.

He gave the order to the Police Commander in Prestea Huni/Valley District, Deputy Superintendent of Police Ben Wonkyi, when he and some members of the Minerals Commission toured some illegal mining sites at Prestea.

Consequently, some equipment including a tipper truck and seven excavators were seized and would be kept at the premises of the Prestea Police Station.

The illegal miners who were at work at the Golden Star Bogoso Prestea Limited’s concession, ran into a nearby bush when the operators of the machines were asked to hand over the keys.

Mr. Hammah expressed worry about the kind of heavy machines the illegal miners were using.

He said illegal mining had become a national crisis and traditional rulers needed to assist the government to curb by refraining from leasing stool lands meant for its indigenes and the public to individuals who mine haphazardly.

Mr. Hammah said judges and prosecutors needed to be engaged on the issue in view of the threat it posed to the future of the country and that the government would ensure that PNDC Law 218, which deals with mining without license, was enforced.

He said both the district and regional security councils would be involved in flushing out of illegal miners and special courts should be set up to deal with the illegal miners.

Mr. Hammah said his outfit would continue to sensitize chiefs and the entire populace on the need to desist from this harmful practice and appealed to Ghanaians to adopt positive attitudes towards the environment.

Mr. Ofori Amanfo, Public Relations Officer of a task force which monitors the activities of these miners in Prestea, said the illegal mining site with the equipment was owned by a Chinese citizen.

Mr. Amanfo said he had spotted the Chinese men on several occasions on the site that had been in operation for more than two years.

Mr. Nuhu Mohammed Mustapha, district secretary of Small Scale Miners Association in Prestea, said the association had written to GSBPL to release that particular land the foreigners were mining to them but it declined.

He said the association had even appealed to the Company to release the alluvia and hard rocks from the Ankobra Bridge through Tarkwa-Bremang, which were not useful to it to the local community to utilize but they had not been given that too.**