Samuel Abu Jinapor, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources
• The Minister noted that the military involvement is contributing to the success of Operation Halt II
• According to him, some water bodies damaged due to illegal mining activities are improving
• Measures are being put in place to also halt the “All Night” phenomenon of mining activities in the communities
Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has indicated that galamsey operations will soon be a thing of the past in the country.
According to him, Operation Halt II is making a lot of impact as water bodies damaged due to small scale illegal mining – galamsey – operations are seeing some improvement.
Speaking at the Meet the Press briefing in Accra, the Minister noted that, the support of military and other security operatives has yielded positive results in the fight against galamsey.
“There is some good news and there is some hope. While we were flying over all these places, it became very evident that the military’s work, Operation Halt is making a lot of impacts, you could tell clearly that a lot of mining activities have ceased and even in some places, the rivers were beginning to have some improvement and therefore that gives me a lot of encouragement,” he said.
He noted that plans are being put in place to curb the mining activities which takes place at night. This is because the illegal miners have now resorted to mining at night to avoid the day-time operations of the task force.
“The mining activities in the night, they call it “All night” in the communities we visited, I think it is important that we deal with this “All night” phenomenon of mining activities. We have to be able to do that, it is necessary,” he added.