Thirteen (13) illegal miners operating in the Birim River have been arrested by the taskforce of Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNASSM).
According to the taskforce Commander Don Chebe, the operations took place on Thursday September 30 and Friday October 1, 2021, adding that close to a hundred (100) chanfai and water pumping machines were burnt while others were retrieved.
The suspects the Commander said included some West African Nationals who were arrested at areas such as Accra Village, Mampong, Nkatieso, Mokyere, and other places operating on the Birim River.
The Vice President and Secretary of GNASSM respectively Sampson Kofi Wiredu and Godwin Armah have indicated that the operation is to augment effort by government to clamp down on illegal miners whose activities continue to create a mess in the mining industry.
The Communication Director of GASSM Razak Alhasan said, illegal miners continue to threaten the water quality of Birim river in the Eastern Region, therefore, every effort will be made by the Association to protect it.
Meanwhile, a total of about 27 pieces of illegal mining equipment were burnt in a special joint Military and Police Operation led by the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources George Mireku Duker in Eastern and Ashanti Regions. The burnt equipment includes 19 chanfai mining machines and eight(8) water pumping machines.
On September 22, 2021, the Bono Regional Security Taskforce had also arrested two suspected notorious illegal miners at Wamfie in the Dormaa East District of the region in a similar operation.
The two were arrested at an illegal mining site during a swoop, led by Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister. The suspects are Kofi Damoah, 36, popularly known as “Allah” and his accomplice, Stephen Ansu, whose age cannot be determined.
Kofi Damoah has been accused of recruiting and habouring several illegal miners to undertake the ‘galamsey’ activities at various sites at Nkrankwanta, Wamfie and Dormaa-Ahenkro in the region.
The taskforce retrieved from him two locally made guns, several cartridges, pumping machines and other small scale mining tools and equipment.
