The Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners has known as on the federal government to take care of unlawful miners arrested for polluting water our bodies.
Over the previous few days, over 15 unlawful miners together with foreigners have been arrested within the Eastern Region.
The unlawful miners, who’re largely foreigners from Burkina Faso, Benin, and Ivory Coast, have infiltrated the communities, diverted the course of the Pra river, and are mining with mercury.
The miners had pitched camp and, on seeing the Minister’s crew, run to cover within the bushes.
But the crew managed to arrest 5 of them and burnt over 30 changfan machines at Oseikrom.
The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker, who led the operation in a Citi News interview mentioned, the group was stopped “because they don’t have a license to mine. It is in an illegal site. They must produce an EPA license before they start mining”.
In an effort to reinforce the federal government’s effort, the affiliation’s taskforce launched into a 2-day operation to fish out these unlawful miners.
Speaking to the media after the arrest of some unlawful miners at Atewa, the Communications Director of the Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners, Abdul Razak Alhassan mentioned the actions of the unlawful miners proceed to create a multitude within the mining business.
According to him, they are going to be certain that all unlawful miners within the nation are handled.
“There has been a whole lot of confusion and mistrust between us and the public who are doing legal businesses and these illegal guys are only disturbing and at any point in time, they are added to us and treated unfairly so we have taken it upon ourselves that we will not sit down and allow this to happen to us.”
