A group of illegal miners have expressed delight in the financial gains from their illegal mining activities.
According to the miners, each of them receives GH¢500 as a daily wage for extracting gold.
This, they said, cannot be compared to the national minimum wage.
The audibly excited miners, therefore, noted that they will continue with the act, despite government’s ongoing attempts to stop them.
Akufo-Addo, I hope you can see us. We are working at night … If our machine is seized, we will use our hands to wash. Everybody gets work to do. You can make ¢500 in one day. Which of your workers do you pay ¢500 a day?”, the miners said in a viral TikTok video.
We really have a LONNNNNNG way to go as a country. Funny commentary but sad. pic.twitter.com/JWuajGWlhk
— RAPHAEL O’MOVIA (@Rafurl) October 16, 2022
In what looked like a deliberate attempt to mock government’s fight against the menace, the miners added that their location is unknown, and that government does not know all the ‘galamsey’ sites across the country.
The comments by the anonymous miners come in the wake of recent agitations about the effects of illegal mining and how government is being lackadaisical in addressing the problem.
In this regard, scores of well-meaning Ghanaians, including the opposition National Democratic Congress and some civil organisations have intensified the calls for government to show more action instead of the usual rhetorics.
Two weeks ago, private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu indicated on Newsfile that the President must make the fight more productive.
Meanwhile, the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, has started investigating some public officials over their alleged involvement in illegal mining.
The investigation targets some officials of the Lands Ministry, the Forestry Commission, and the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
This is part of a raft of measures by government to deal decisively with the menace.