The Deputy Lands Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, liable for Lands Forestry Hon. Benito Owusu-Bio has sounded a transparent warning to unlawful miners to remain off forest reserves as he pressured that no matter positions, they are going to be pushed out and sanctioned.” No matter who you’re, we don’t care, in the event you enter the forest reserves we are going to drive you out and sanction you as nicely”
He intimated that the forest reserves usually are not for mining however was fast so as to add that except for distinctive instances like that of Chirano mines and Newmont who’ve been granted authorized licences to function “but that doesn’t mean that anyone can just jump into the forest to mine and if we find you like that, we will deal with you”
The Deputy Minister mentioned this when he paid a working go to to Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve to determine the veracity of stories of Akonta Mining Company nonetheless working within the forest even after the directive by the Lands Minister to the Forestry Commission to halt the corporate’s operations within the Forest by a Press Release on thirtieth September, 2022.
It will probably be recalled that the Ministry’s Press assertion identified that “whereas Akonta Mining Limited has a mining lease to undertake mining operations in some elements of Somreboi, outdoors the Forest Reserve, the corporate has no mineral rights to undertake mining operations within the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve.
After an aerial view of the complete forest, Hon. Benito Owusu-Bio and his workforce noticed about three web site within the forests with some gear however no operations and instantly charged the forestry officers to burn and decommission every part on the positioning upon arrival.
The workforce additionally found a special group of unlawful miners, working alongside the banks and edges of the river and some within the forest. Per the map guiding that aerial view 98% of the miners had been outdoors the restricted space, that are the banks and edges whereas the remaining 2% labored within the Forest reserves itself. It may nonetheless not be decided which mining firm these miners belong to.
Addressing the difficulty of this new group of unlawful miners discovered mining on the river he mentioned “these are not small scale miners, these are obviously people who are just burnt on destroying our forests, waterbodies and the entire environment but I cannot tell wether that is Akonta or any other company because this is not organised so I can say it’s purely illegal mining that is going on there!”
He assured the media that as a matter of urgency the Ministry will unleash Operations halt II to the realm who with pace boats and the best gear will carry a halt to all actions ongoing within the river. “With what we have seen here, I will report to the Minister and we would immediately see how we can strategize and bring the operationas to a halt with the speed boats recently pocured to chase them out”
He additionally famous that along with the Forestry Commission and Samartex, a timber firm within the enclave they’ll quickly beef up the variety of forest guards who patrol the 300sq kilometer forest with help from the navy.
The Deputy Lands Minister warned that with the assistance of the navy, the Ministry and the Forestry Commission will embark on comparable operations in all forest reserves throughout the nation to make sure they rid all forests of illegalities of any kind. “This will not stop here, we know this is not the only forest reserves under attack and so we will continue to ensure all forest with any illegal activity is brought under scrutiny”
Hon. Benito known as on the neighborhood members and conventional leaders of the Amenfi West Municipality of the Western Region to affix within the battle in opposition to unlawful mining for their very own sake and for the betterment of the setting and the nation.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Mr. John Allotey on his half gave particulars to the extent of the devastation saying out of a complete space of 205sq kilometer, near about 0.12sq kilometer of the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve has been impacted upon by the unlawful actions.
He famous that since August when the Commission began having the problem of teams trooping into the forest to mine, the Commission have despatched out the navy to the realm about 8 occasions all in efforts to maintain them out of the forest.
He assured that heeding to the directives of the Hon. Minister, the Commission is dedicated to making sure that each one these discovered culpable to this matter will probably be handled in accordance with the Law.
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*PR UPDATES – MLNR*
