The Minister for Lands an Natural Resource, John Peter Amewu, has issued a 30-day ultimatum to all illegal miners, known in the local language as ‘galamseyers’, to remove all their excavators parked along the road side leading to their unapproved mining sites and return them to source.
Failure to do so, he noted, will lead to the State moving in to confiscate those heavy duty machines.
The said directive was revealed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Dr. Tony Aubyn, in an interaction Kasapa 102.5 FM, Monday, April 24, 2017, on updates to the three-week ultimatum the Lands and Natural Minister issued to galamseyers to bring all their illegal mining activities to a halt or face the consequences.
“As we speak, we are now at Prestea and I can confirm that all the places we visited, the galamseyers have stopped their activities which are encouraging. But we witnessed that the galamseyers have packed all their excavators used in the illegal mining business along the roadside. The Minister had the feeling that perhaps they are waiting for the pressure being mounted on them to decline so that they can go back to the mining sites to continue with their activities. There is the general perception that the directive issued by the Minister to stop all illegal mining activities will not be vigorously pursued and so with time, the illegal miners could go back to business. So, the minister has issued a 30-day ultimatum to all the illegal miners who have packed their excavators alongside the road to remove and return them to source,” he noted.
Mr. Peter Amewu, according to Minerals Commission boss, issued the ultimatum moments after touring some illegal mining sites in the Western Region on Sunday, April 23, 2017.
The exercise by the Minister was to get first hand information as to whether the illegal miners had complied with his three-week ultimatum to bring to a halt all their activities in order to save the environment.
On March 29, 2017, Mr. Peter Amewu issued a three-week ultimatum to illegal miners to halt their activities as the government steps up the fight against illegal mining.
Failure to comply with the said directive, he noted, will leave the State with no option than to take legal action against offenders.
Mr. Amewu’s action was spurred by reports by the Ghana Water Company that the country risks importing water for consumption unless illegal mining activities come to a halt since the spate of water pollution was approaching alarming levels.
