North East Regional Minister, Zakaria Yidana has disclosed that the Chinese nationals responsible for galamsey activities in Namgruma in the region operated illegally as they did not produce any license or document to cover their operations.

Zakaria Yidana in an interview on Newsfile on Saturday said the Chinese nationals were all this while operating illegally and have since evacuated the site after President Akufo-Addo’s announcement to deal with such persons during his meeting with the National House of Chiefs.

“I can say on authority that all those who were involved in mining did not produce genuine documents from the Minerals Commission or from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources so all their operations were illegal.

“At the time when the President gave the signal that the nation was not going to tolerate such impunity, the Chinese galamseyers ran away,” he said.

On September 14, it was reported that five young men died in a galamsey pit at Namgruma after the pit collapsed on them.

The five were later identified as Kwaku Noah, Issahaku Osman, Mohammed Ibrahim, Salifu and Aliu Waliu.

According to the Regional Coordinator of NADMO, John Kwaku Alhassan, the miners were said to be prospecting for gold in an abandoned pit which was earlier used by some Chinese nationals but was left uncovered.

“It is an abandoned pit by the Chinese... You know, recently it has been raining and, coupled with the spillage of the Bagre Dam, accessibility to the pit has been compromised.

“We are told that these miners went there with a machine to pump the water out of the pit so that they could get access to do the mining.

“I think they went inside the pit and as a result of that, maybe they died through suffocation. The pit was supposed to be covered [but it wasn’t],” he told JoyNews.

Meanwhile, the North East Regional Minister has called on government to provide resources to enable the community to reclaim the land to be used for farming.

According to him, the chemicals which were used by the Chinese galamseyers have posed a serious threat to the land such that it cannot grow crops for several years.

“As for the use of chemicals and the damage to the environment, it is something that I may not be able to quantify in terms of the cost involved and the health. Truly speaking, what the Chinese left behind is a threat to human life.

“If we get support, we will need to reclaim those lands for people to farm and to even get the nutrient restored otherwise thousand years to come, no tree can grow there because they have virtually opened the earth,” he added.

Zakaria Yidana noted that the police and the traditional authorities have now been patrolling the site to stop any further Galamsey activity.