Galamsey: Gov’t says excavators seized by task force have vanished

This comes after about 500 excavators were confiscate from illegal miners by the GalamStop taskforce.

Speaking to Accra-based Joy FM, the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation said some of the machines cannot be accounted for.

Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng said the excavators were kept at the various district assemblies but some have disappeared.

Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Frimpong Boateng Pulse Ghana

“The task force seized a lot of excavators and kept them at the various offices, we sent people to talk to the district assemblies, we got vanguard involved and we realized most of the excavators have disappeared," the Minister, who doubles as Chairperson for the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), said.

In 2017, the Akufo-Addo government waged a war on illegal mining activities and placed a temporal ban on small-scale mining.

The Operation Vanguard taskforce was subsequently set up to guard the various illegal mining sites.

The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation later set up a Galamstop taskforce to support the Operation Vanguard team in fighting illegal mining.

However, recent reports indicate that illegal mining activities are still ongoing in some parts of the country.

The menace has led to the destruction of some water bodies, with the Ghana Water Company Limited raising red flags about the state of the Ankobrah River in the Western Region.

Other rives like the Pra, Densu and Offin have also been left polluted by illegal mining activities.