South Africa, Sudan and other African countries that are also battling with illegal mining have been visiting Ghana to learn from how its fight against the illegal mining is being fought.
Already, officials of these two countries have visited Ghana and met with officials of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Minerals Commission and other stakeholders on the techniques they used in fighting the menace.
Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker, announced this in an interview with 3FM’s Sunrise on Thursday hosted by Alfred Ocansey.
“I got scared when I was appointed as Deputy Minister because we get to a place and you ask who is mining here and you have to fight it because those involved are politicians. We have politicians’ involved in illegal mining”, he explained.
He said “South Africans have been here to learn how we are fighting the galamsey. They collaborated with us to learn how we are fighting the galamsey. Sudan, the Minister for Mining was also here wanting to know how we are fighting”.
Mr. Duker added “we are doing well. We have some success stories to share but of course, there are challenges. I will not say there are no challenges, but we are getting there”.
The Deputy Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Tarkwa Nsuaem Constituency further indicated that “we have ‘Operation Halt II’ in place now.
“The soldiers are there and there is a level that I have gotten to that I am happy with. We are not against mining but we are against illegal mining so the operation halt II soldiers are in the forest. They are burning the seized excavators because those people don’t have the nation at heart”.
He noted that “the burning of excavators has minimized illegal mining. We need to protect the heritage of this country. We need to protect the water bodies. We need to protect the lands and forest”.
Source: 3news.com
