The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) has explained that the difficulty of removing heavy mining equipment from rivers and inaccessible sites has forced authorities to destroy and burn some of the machinery.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, October 22, Colonel Appiah said the fight against illegal mining would continue until all illegal mining infrastructure was removed from river bodies.
“As has been mentioned on many occasions, the fight against illegal mining is a marathon, and we are poised to go through this race to ensure that we take out all illegal mining infrastructure on our river bodies,” he said.
Colonel Appiah said the size and weight of the equipment, coupled with poor road access to some mining sites, made it difficult to transport the machinery.
“It is very difficult to move them out of the rivers because road access and access for trucks to the areas are almost impossible. So, we need to destroy and burn them, and later, in coordination with the GSDC, which has the capability to lift them from the river bodies,” he added.
