Illegal miners are may be presented with opportunity yet again to destroy water bodies and farm lands if ?government latest action goes through.
Government is to withdraw security officials from all mining concessions across the country by Saturday November 30, Joy News has learnt.
It is not clear why the action is being considered. Soldiers and other security officers are guiding the mining concessions as part of government?s efforts to deal with the activities of galamsey operators and foreigners, who are illegally engaged in small scale mining in parts of the country.
JOY NEWS sources say the directive has been communicated to the security officers and barring any last minute change in plan, they will leave the concessions by Saturday.
Any individual or group of people other than AngloGold Ashanti exploring, mining, processing and marketing gold in the municipality is engaged in illegal mining, John K. Owusu, AngloGold?s General Manager of Public Affairs has said.
In an exclusive interview with spyghana.com, Owusu lauded government?s effort. ?We thank the government and the Interministerial Committee for intervening in Obuasi to flush out illegal miners but we have evidence that the Chinese illegal miners who were deported are staging a comeback big on the fringes of the Obuasi concession.?
?They are operating in villages just behind the Obuasi Airport against the will of the people in those communities?, Owusu said.
According to him, the Chinese have equipment and have employed Ghanaians to assist them. ?They mine in water bodies and seize farm lands with the assistance of some chiefs and other traditional leaders. They also pay no compensation to the poor farmers whose farms and crops ?are adversely impacted by the illegal operation, neither do they pay taxes on their illegal booty to the government.? He therefore made an appeal to all stakeholders to assists in flushing them out once more.
Gabriel Nti is a 20 year old illegal miner who we chanced upon during our visit. He tells us he has been in this business for about three years. ?This is what I do for a living. I know it destroys the environment and the government is also after us but there is nothing I can do. If I am caught then that is it.?
The activities of these illegal miners, both Ghanaians and the Chinese, have left a number of deep open pits that has collected mercury infested water making it dangerous for farmers to easily walk to their farmlands. ?The pathetic aspect of this irresponsible form of mining is that these mercury infested water bodies are the main sources of drinking water for the people in the communities downstream?.
Source-JOY
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