More than 18 chanfans and an excavator were destroyed when the military swooped on some illegal mining sites within the Atiwa East and West districts of the Eastern Region.
The swoop formed part of the escalation of "Operation Halt" announced by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as part of the raft of measures deployed to bring the galamsey menace under control.
Spearheaded by officers and men from the 48 Engineers Regiment of Ghana Armed Forces, the exercise was undertaken in collaboration with a taskforce constituted by the Ghana Small Scale Miners Association.
The operation which was led by Colonel Eric Tenadu mainly targeted activities on the Birim River and its tributaries as well as the Atiwa Forest area.
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Most of the illegal miners who received early tip-off of the invasion of the military from their informants mostly in the communities, fled their sites before the arrival of the team, leaving behind their machines and equipment.
Also destroyed were number of wooden shacks used as operational offices for the illegal miners, pumping machines, generators and other mining tools.
Briefing journalists after the operation, the commander in charge, Col. Tenadu, said the men deployed for this first phase would spend two weeks on the field.
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He said the team realised that most of the illegal miners fled their sites upon hearing of their presence, but they would restrategise and ensure they flushed out all of the illegal miners on river bodies.
He said in all about 18 chanfans, 10 pumping machines and other equipment were destroyed and removed from the water surface.
On his part, the president of the Small Scale Miners Association, Mohammed Amao said the operation was largely successful and would be sustained.
He said small scale miners were equally concerned about the wanton destruction of the environment and river bodies.
Mr Amao said it was unfortunate that legal small scale was most often equated to illegal mining, stressing that, "our members are into responsible mining and support every action taken to ensure that those destroying the environment are brought to book.
He expressed his gratitude to the government for the collaboration and called for it to be sustained
