A Chinese national, identified only as Wu, and five Ghanaian collaborators have been arrested for invading the mining concession of Zoar Mining Enterprise in the Twifo Atti-Morkwa District of the Central region.
The illegal miners have succeeded in destroying over 50 acres of the 120-acre concession belonging to the company, with the aid of excavators and other earth-moving equipment.
They claimed to be working for one Ernest who is at large.
The arrest of the armed miners follows days and nights of surveillance and ambush laying by the security personnel of Zoar Mining Enterprise.
The suspects were arrested at about 1 a.m. on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, and handed over to the Ministries Police in Accra on the instructions of officials of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, on November 15, 2023, granted a 5-year mining lease, subject to renewal, to the company to mine gold and diamond.
But before the company started operations, the illegal miners had invaded the concession with over 40 of them undertaking brisk business.
Nana Akwasi Yentumi Asante, Operations and Sustainability Manager of Zoar Mining Enterprise, tells Joynews the exercise was staged smoothly..
“The arrest was done by our company’s security unit and was calm, well-coordinated, and without any blood flow. We started the ambush at around 1 a.m. today.” he said.
He said Zoar Mining has “lost millions of Ghana cedis” to the illegal mining activities.
“If we were to do our own business, production in the worst-case scenario is between 4kg and 15kg of gold per concession of such nature,” he said.
Appalled by the development, Nana Asante warned the company will do everything possible to protect its concessions, which can rake in more funds into government coffers in taxes.
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