In an interview on Ultimate Breakfast Show, the galamseyer revealed that he bought 7 Mercedes Benz Sprinter buses from a week’s proceeds from galamsey.
“In 2014, one Sprinter Bus cost GH¢80,000 but I bought seven after working for just a week in a galamsey concession. Tell me which kind of job can give you this amount of money. Which kind of job?” he stated.
The miner, who requested to remain anonymous, disclosed that his workers could have even made more but for the fear of getting arrested by the security services.
“This was just a quick work we were doing. So imagine the politician who has all the protection to go in there to mine,” he retorted.
The galamseyer pointed out that perpetrators of this ongoing illegal business, which has polluted Ghana’s rivers and forest cover, include politicians, wealthy businessmen, religious leaders, and all classes of persons least suspected of engaging in such crimes.
He also alleged that chiefs who were supposed to be stewards of their traditional areas not only sold the lands but also restrained miners who were willing to reclaim lands.
“We often blame the Chinese who came in with the Excavator for destroying the lands and leaving in their trail huge pits. But the chiefs will never allow you to cover the pits and reclaim the land. When you have left, they will allow other people to go back into the pits to mine more gold. They want to keep benefitting from the pits even when we have left,” the miner stated.
Commenting on the calls by various groups and people to get the government to act against the menace, he stated that he has little confidence that the issue can be resolved.
“Miners will continue to mine until the world draws to an end.”
Growing calls on the government to clamp down on galamsey
Following the exacerbating impact of galamsey activities on the environment, especially water bodies and forests, the government has come under intense pressure to take action against the operations of illegal small-scale miners whose activities have affected 34 of the country’s 288 forest reserves and left river bodies churning with turbidity levels hovering well above 14,000 MTUs.
The calls continue to grow as more protests are being organised by organisations for the government to take swift action, following the arrest of some Democracy Hub Protestors who were remanded into police and prison custody for two weeks.
As the pressure on the government surges, Ghana’s biggest labour front, Organised Labour, is demanding that President Akufo-Addo deploys security forces to clamp down on illegal miners and repeal L.I. 2462, which permits the granting of licences for mining in forest reserves, with a threat to embark on a nationwide strike planned to commence on 10 October 2024 if the government fails to grant their demands.