Two more Chinese illegal miners arrested in Amansie West enclave

Two more Chinese illegal miners have been arrested by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region enclave in days.

This brings to four the number of Chinese illegal miners arrested by the Committee in that enclave within three days.

The current two were arrested at Npasetia General within Manso Adubia township on Monday, April 29, 2019, while the first two were arrested at Adjaadjokrom on Saturday, April 27, 2019.

The Head of the Taskforce Monitoring Team, Francis Assibi Abu, revealed on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa, Tuesday that “they were arrested on a registered concession but the Chinese are not supposed to be found there”. Foreigners are not allowed to do small scale mining.

He explained that when the Committee got to the concession, “the Chinese illegal miners got the hint so they ran away but the lead informant helped us”.

“They ran away to a community called Npasetia General and the informants helped us to trace them so we rushed there and they were arrested”.

Mr. Assibi Abu said “they are currently at Obuasi Police Station. We shall take them to Accra today [Tuesday, April 30, 2019].

Asked whether he believes the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining is winning the fight against illegal mining, the Head of the Team said “we are making progress in the fight”.