Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng is advocating for a special court for prosecution of illegal mining-related cases.
According to him, prosecution of illegal miners apprehended by Operation Vanguard is delayed due to the number of cases begging for attention.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng made the call while discussing the roadmap toward the lifting of the ban on illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.
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Operation Vanguard was officially inaugurated on July 31, 2017, to enforce the ban on illegal and small-scale mining across the country.
The joint police and military force has arrested 1,339 illegal miners at different mining sites across the country.
However, prosecutions of these culprits are delayed due to limited resources by the courts, a situation that is becoming a discouragement for the Operation Vanguard team who spend sleepless night arresting the galamsey operators.
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But on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Friday, Prof Frimpong Boateng said the only solution to the problem is to get a dedicated court for galamsey cases.
He revealed that out of the many arrests, just 10 percent of cases are prosecuted in court and suspects jailed for the crime.
the Environment Minister bemoaned how despite the positive gains chalked by the team, some recalcitrant illegal miners were still mining for gold in the Ashanti, Central, Western and Brong Ahafo Regions.
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Prof. Frimpong Boateng said there had been an extensive public education of the dangers and effects of illegal mining and had devised extensive and intrusive monitoring mechanisms to make sure that after the ban was lifted, miners would not go back to the bad old ways to destroy the environment.
He added that other roadmaps included; the use of satellite images and drones to monitor mining activities and the use of a computer software application called GalamSTOP.
With this comprehensive programme, Prof Frimpong Boateng was certain the ban on small-scale mining will be lifted by the end of the year.