Galamsey: NAIMOS seizes 22 Chanfang machines in Eshaem operation

The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) is expanding its enforcement efforts against illegal mining to target individuals and businesses that manufacture, supply, transport, store or otherwise facilitate access to equipment used for galamsey.

The expanded strategy follows a major operation at Eshaem in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region, where a NAIMOS task force disrupted several illegal mining sites along the stretch from the Eshaem road towards the Ankobra River.

During the operation, the team destroyed 28 chanfang machines, 19 water pumps and five makeshift structures used in illegal mining activities.

The task force also identified several illegal mining sites along the operational route, including two major locations close to the Ankobra River.

At one site, personnel observed signs of recent excavator activity, while three excavators were discovered at another. A monitor was retrieved from one of the machines, while essential components had been removed from the others.

The operation took another turn as the task force was returning from the area and encountered a Hyundai truck transporting 22 brand-new chanfang machines that were being offloaded into a store.

The truck and the machines were seized immediately.

A nearby store was also found to contain a considerable quantity of equipment and spare parts believed to be associated with illegal mining operations.

The premises were secured to allow further investigations into the ownership and origin of the equipment, as well as its intended destination.

NAIMOS says the development highlights the need to look beyond mining sites and disrupt the supply chains that enable illegal miners to replace equipment destroyed during enforcement exercises.

According to the Secretariat, destroying machinery at illegal mining sites alone may not achieve lasting results if operators can quickly obtain replacements and resume their activities along rivers and other environmentally sensitive areas.

Under the expanded strategy, NAIMOS intends to increase scrutiny of chanfang fabricators, equipment manufacturers and assemblers, dealers, suppliers, transporters, warehouses and storage facilities.

The Secretariat will also focus on individuals who knowingly rent out excavators, pumps and other machinery for illegal mining activities.

Intelligence-gathering efforts are expected to be intensified to identify locations where equipment is manufactured, assembled, stored and distributed for use in galamsey operations.

The objective is to disrupt the supply and logistics networks that allow illegal miners to replace confiscated or destroyed machinery, thereby weakening the system that sustains mining activities along Ghana’s rivers, farmlands and other vulnerable areas.

The Eshaem exercise forms part of Operation WATER SHIELD, an initiative aimed at protecting the Ankobra River from the effects of illegal mining in parts of the Western Region.

NAIMOS says it will maintain its operations along the river corridor while extending its focus to the networks supplying machinery, fuel, transportation and other logistical support for illegal mining.

The Secretariat has warned that people who knowingly manufacture, fabricate, transport, store, supply or rent equipment for illegal mining should not assume they are beyond the reach of enforcement simply because they do not operate directly at mining sites.

It says the crackdown will extend from the riverbanks to workshops where mining equipment is fabricated, stores where it is kept, vehicles used to transport it and the networks responsible for financing and supplying it.

NAIMOS will continue collaborating with relevant security and regulatory agencies to investigate the ownership and supply chains of equipment intercepted during its operations and take appropriate action where links to illegal mining are established.

The Secretariat maintains that those who provide the machinery and infrastructure that facilitate the destruction of Ghana’s rivers will increasingly come under scrutiny as it intensifies efforts to combat illegal mining.