Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, says the Operation Halt campaign taskforce will stop at nothing to clear the country’s river bodies of illegal miners.
He said the team will go after all illegal miners defying orders to stop their nefarious activities.
Mr. Nitiwul was speaking at a news conference in Accra where he gave an update on Phase three of Operation Halt Two on Rivers Pra, Oda and Offin.
He said the operation has led to the arrest of a Chinese and the destruction of more than four hundred mining equipment including excavators, Shanfans, and water pumping machines. Five hundred and 61 personnel from the Army, Air forceand Navy were deployed for the operation which lasted four days.
Mr. Nitiwul justified the burning of excavators,saying they are expensive, so burning them will be the strongest deterrent to those using them for illegal operations.
Meanwhile, Minister of Lands and Natural Resource, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has refuted allegations of granting mining license or lease to anyone.
According to him, he has not done that and is not aware of anything done by his ministry in relation to granting license or lease to anyone.
His comments follow rumours of him granting license or lease to small-scale miners.
He said they are reviewing the licensing regime so it can be decentralized among other reforms to ensure regularization of small scale mining.
