Six illegal miners have been arrested for intruding on the concession managed by Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited at Gbane in the Upper East Region.
They were arrested with sacks containing pilfered ore and weapons meant to allegedly scare away workers of the company.
Speaking to Citi News after the arrests, the Public Relations Officer of Shaanxi, Maxwell Wooma said the suspects confessed using an illegal pit belonging to one Kofi Macho to enter into the Shaanxi underground mine.
The company, which is offering mine support services to the Yenyeya and Pubortaaba Mining Groups in the Talensi District, has over the years suffered from the activities of illegal miners who always use unauthorized ingresses to access their underground tunnels to steal ore.
A number of them have been victims of mishaps, most recently in January, where 16 illegal miners died after an explosion led to them inhaling lethal amounts of blast fumes.
The miners were using an illegal pit belonging to one Kwasi Appian, aka Kwesi Bantama to access the company’s underground.
An investigation was conducted and found Kwasi Appiah, culpable.
The company received a letter on the 21st March 2019 to resume work after an initial suspension.
It, however, refused to resume and operate fully, calling on the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Minerals Commission to implement the accident report to the letter by sealing all the illegal pits in the area.
Workers of the company also demonstrated on the 3rd April 2019, strongly hinting that the illegal miners had ‘repopulated’ in the area portending a recurrence of the illegal intrusions.
They, therefore, called on the Minerals Commission and the Attorney General’s Department to take steps to quash an injunction secured by some ‘illegal miners’ against the sealing of the pits.
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By: Frederick Awuni | citinewsroom.com | Ghana