Ten suspected illegal miners (galamseyers), including a Chinese national have been arrested by the joint team of police, National Investigations Bureau (NIB) and National Security personnel at Axim in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region.
The illegal miners who were busted on Wednesday January 18, 2023 were reported to have unlawfully invaded the legally acquired gold mining concession of the Okoben Mining Company Limited in Dominase.
The swoop, conducted by the Ghana Police Service in collaboration with the NIB and National Security forms part of the government’s renewed fight against illegal mining.
Information available indicate that the illegal miners who invaded the concession were more than those arrested but some managed to run away at the time the security operatives stormed the site to affect their arrest.
The miners indiscriminately mined gold in the concession without the knowledge of the owner of the company, Nana Okoben Amponsah.
They also managed to clear large tracts of arable cocoa farmlands, and tributaries of the Ankobra River have been heavily polluted by their activities.
The team confiscated some excavators and other items.
The suspects are currently in police custody at the Axim Divisional Police Command as the issue is being investigated.
The CEO of Okoben Mining Company Limited, Nana Okoben Amponsah expressed worry that despite the ban on these illegal activities, some “unpatriotic” Ghanaians are aiding foreigners to mine and destroy a gold mining concession he lawfully and legally secured for the past 24 years ago.
“How is it possible that despite the number of caution and announcements, people still have the effrontery to be engaging in illegal mining? What worries me the most is how our own people find it convenient to collaborate with foreigners on this destruction spree”.
Nana Okoben Amponsah said, “it is very sad. But I make a solemn promise that we will not rest. If it means going after them every day, then that is exactly what we will do”.