Government has relaunched Operation Halt II with a renewed vigour and retooling of the military to clamp down on illegal miners whose activities are causing havoc to the country’s water bodies and the environment.
Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Mr. Samuel A. Jinapor who announced this at a media briefing organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra yesterday, gave assurance there will not be any interference in the fight against the illegal mining popularly referred to as galamsey.
He said unlike the previous military operations which took three months, the new campaign will be a sustained effort until the galamsey menace is brought to a satisfactory situation.
Accordingly, Mr. Jinapor said his Ministry has submitted to the military high command, details of all licenced mining operations in the country, to guide them in their operations, and they will be assisted by mine inspectors and personnel from the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, to gather evidence for prosecution.
Government, he stressed, was committed to ensuring that anyone found culpable will face the full rigours of the law.
The Minister also is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Damongo said following the meeting between President Nana Akufo-Addo and the members of the National House of Chiefs, the Minerals Commission has been directed to ensure that chiefs make an input into any application for a mineral right before a recommendation is made to the Minister.
Operation Halt II was first launched in April 2021, to remove all persons and mining equipment from water bodies and forest reserves in the country, including decommissioning and demobilising equipment where necessary.
Made up of personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces, the team worked on major river bodies, such as, Pra, Offin, Ankobra, Birim and Ayensu, as well as forest reserves in the country.
As a temporary measure, Operation Halt II relaxed its operations when some of the river bodies started showing signs of clearing up.
However, with the resurgence of illegal mining activities across the country, the Minister has indicated that the operation has been relaunched, after a review of the earlier operation.
According to Mr. Jinapor, the Operation will run alongside other measures being implemented by the Ministry, such as, the declaration of river bodies as red zones for mining.
Others are the suspension of reconnaissance and prospecting activities in Forest Reserves, except in exceptional cases; the ban on the manufacture, sale and use of changfan; the procurement of speed boats to patrol the river bodies; the recruitment of river guards, to support the protection of the river bodies; the introduction of mercury-free gold Katchas; the establishment of 83 Small-Scale Mining Committees in all mining districts in the country and the revamping of Community Mining Schemes.
The rest are the introduction of the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme which now engages about 80,000 people in alternative livelihood projects.
Mr. Jinapor said the new Operation Halt II, which was relaunched on Tuesday, was well thought-through, reformed to take care of the current resurgence of the galamsey menace and funding has been secured to ensure its sustainability.
He said the Operation is being run concurrently in the Southern, Central and Northern Commands, and already, 20 excavators and scores of changfans and other mining equipment have been decommissioned.
According to the Minister, the Operation Halt II team have been instructed to use their discretion whether to decommission or seize equipment, and this is to be done without any interference from any person whatsoever.
He said the team will be held accountable for anything that happens in their operations, and thus are not supposed to take instructions from anyone, including him, the Minister.
Mr. Jinapor called on all citizens, and particularly the media, to assist Government to come to grips with this canker.
He said the media must take a lead role in educating the general public about the consequences of illegal mining on current and future generations, as well as the punishment for engaging in illegal mining.
The Minister said he was optimistic that with the support of the media and citizenry, Government will deal with the menace.
