The trend where the national security task force confiscates mining equipment used by small-scale miners is not the best because it leaves the pits uncovered, Abu Bonsrah, Chairman of the Small Scale Miners Association in the Amansie West district of the Ashanti Region, has said.
According to him, the task force, during its swoops, often rounds up both illegal miners (galamseyers) and licensed small-scale miners, allowing for no time to cover the mining pits.
Speaking on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Wednesday 22 March, Mr Bonsrah said, as a way of dealing with the illegal mining menace in the country, there was the need to differentiate illegal miners from licensed ones.
That, he said, would expose the real culprits behind the ‘galamsey’ menace and be dealt with accordingly.
He said: “I remember that in 2004, for instance, about 170 excavators of small-scale miners were confiscated in 2004 during an operation. All efforts to get the equipment returned to enable us cover the pits were futile. Under the previous administration too, a similar incident happened. We were harassed together with the illegal miners with our equipment and excavators seized.
“As you are mining, certainly there will be pits and when you are done you will need to cover them, but how can you cover the pits when your equipment have been seized? It does not work that way and so the pits will continue to be there. National Security and the soldiers will need to stop lumping all of us together in the fight against ‘galamsey’.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
