10 Chinese illegal miners arrested in Tarkwa

Ten Chinese illegal Miners have been arrested by police in Tarkwa in the Western Region.

They were arrested upon a tip off by one of the galamsey taskforces in the area.

The illegal miners were mining opposite the Tarkwa Senior High School very close to an area where the Lands Ministry was holding a National Stakeholders’ workshop on the Multilateral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP).

Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu who lead the team of police officers to make the arrest told journalists that the fight against galamsey is very difficult but the ministry will not give up.

“Chinese people are doing this illegal activity; they’ve recruited our own people to be working with them. The pit that they are using is a very old pit and it’s been there for years without any safety precautionary measure being put in place they are in there and they are mining. Tomorrow we will hear about a cave in and that becomes another issue.”

“The idea that they think they are not polluting any water or causing land degradation but we all saw the amount of water that they were pumping from the pit. So if they tell us that they are not polluting any water what do they mean by that?”

Mr. Owusu also complained that the Electricity Company of Ghana’s branch at Tarkwa provided the Chinese miners with electricity to undertake the illegality.

“We saw Electricity Company of Ghana goes in and supply power to an illegal activity while their own regulation states that before they supply power to any premises, they must know who the owner is, they must know what work you are going to use the power for. And if it is an illegal activity they have every right to deny them power. When we get to Accra, we will report them to their main office so they know what their agency is doing here,” he added.

Other Chinese illegal miners have already been arrested in other areas including Kyebi in Eastern Region for engaging in illegal mining.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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Ten Chinese illegal Miners have been arrested by police in Tarkwa in the Western Region. They were arrested upon a tip off by one of the galamsey taskforces in the area. The illegal miners were mining opposite the Tarkwa Senior High School very close to an area where the Lands Ministry was holding a National ... Read Full Story