The Amansie West District Security Committee in the Ashanti Region has impounded 33 excavators used for mining activities in defiance of government’s ban on illegal and small-scale mining.

Twenty-seven mining operators who were arrested have since been arraigned before the Bekwai Circuit Court and granted bail.

The arrest and seizure followed a joint swoop with the National Anti-galamsey Taskforce, Operation Vanguard.

A major obstacle to the crusade, however, is the assembly’s low capacity to move the excavators from mining sites to assembly premises.

Only nine of the seized equipment have successfully been conveyed to the district capital.

District Chief Executive, William Asare Bediako, who also chairs the District Security Committee (DISEC), laments over the challenge.

"It costs the Assembly lots of money to hire a low bed and convey these tracks to our premises,” the DCE laments.

Mr. Asante Bediako, however, vows ongoing collaboration with the task force will be sustained to deal with lawbreakers.

He assures that "nonetheless the Assembly is not perturbed by challenges, we are poised to end the menace of illegal mining."