The government’s intensified campaign against illegal mining is yielding fresh results, with the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) arresting 12 suspected illegal miners and destroying mining equipment at an illegal mining site in Osino in the Eastern Region.
The latest operation demonstrates the government’s determination to keep the pressure on illegal mining, even as operators continue to show remarkable persistence by returning to areas that security agencies have already cleared.
In what has become a recurring challenge in the fight against galamsey, NAIMOS personnel returned to the Osino site just days after conducting an earlier operation there, only to discover that illegal miners had returned and reassembled their equipment.
The development highlights both the effectiveness of the government’s enforcement operations and the stubborn resistance of illegal mining operators who continue attempting to reclaim sites from which they have been flushed out.
The latest intervention resulted in the arrest of 12 suspected illegal miners, while equipment found at the site was destroyed as part of efforts to prevent the immediate resumption of mining activities.
Speaking to JoyNews’ Stephen Mensah on September 25, NAIMOS spokesperson Paa Kwesi Schandorf said the return of the miners, despite the earlier operation, underlines the need to maintain a permanent security presence at illegal mining hotspots.
“It’s not the first day of an operation like this. We got the indication they were here four days ago, and they returned again,” he said.
According to Mr Schandorf, the security agencies had already flushed illegal miners out of the location several days earlier.
Their return, however, saw them back at virtually the same location with their equipment ready to resume operations.
“You saw when we arrived how that all of them have put together their equipment, and then they are back at the very same place they were flushed out,” he said.
Rather than signalling a failure of the government’s crackdown, NAIMOS says the development reinforces the case for a more sustained enforcement presence.
Mr Schandorf said the repeated return of miners gives further justification to the government’s strategy of permanently deploying security personnel to areas identified as illegal-mining hotspots.
“This basically affirms why the permanent deployment forms part of government’s core strategies,” he said.
He added that the situation gives credence to the proposition that permanent deployment is necessary to prevent illegal miners from simply waiting for security operations to end before returning to cleared locations.
“It gives credence to the Minister’s proposition that a permanent deployment is the way to go,” he said.
The government’s approach is therefore moving beyond periodic raids towards a more sustained effort designed to ensure that gains made during enforcement operations are not immediately reversed.
NAIMOS says additional resources are expected to be committed to permanent deployment arrangements as authorities seek to make it increasingly difficult for illegal miners to return to sites that have been cleared.
The Osino operation also illustrates the scale of the challenge confronting the authorities.
Some of those arrested reportedly claimed they were working at the site for the first time and were seeking income for their daily survival.
Among those apprehended was a 15-year-old identified only as Bernard, who reportedly told authorities that he had been brought to the site to work and raise money to support his education.
The case highlights the complicated human dimension of illegal mining, particularly where poverty and the search for income are used to draw young people into dangerous mining activities.
But such circumstances have not weakened the government’s resolve to enforce restrictions against illegal mining.
Mr Schandorf also stressed that the responsibility for keeping illegal mining out of cleared areas cannot rest exclusively with national enforcement teams.
He called for stronger local enforcement, arguing that communities with police stations should be able to respond rapidly whenever illegal mining activities are detected.
“It shouldn’t even take NAIMOS to come all the way from the NAIMOS headquarters for some of these operations to be conducted,” he said.
Greater coordination between local security agencies and national enforcement teams, he said, would make it possible to respond more quickly and prevent illegal miners from re-establishing themselves.
The NAIMOS spokesperson acknowledged the cooperation of the Ghana Police Service, National Security and other state agencies involved in the crackdown.
“The Police have been very cooperative. The National Security has been extremely supportive. All the relevant state agencies have been very supportive,” he said.
But he also pointed to a major obstacle outside the security agencies: divided community attitudes towards illegal mining.
According to Mr Schandorf, some residents benefit directly or indirectly from galamsey, while others oppose the destruction of their environment and have continued to provide intelligence to the authorities.
“There are those who are beneficiaries, and then there are those who are against the whole fight. And so it’s a divided front,” he said.
That division makes community cooperation particularly important to the government’s campaign.
Residents who oppose illegal mining, Mr Schandorf said, continue to provide information that enables security agencies to identify illegal operations and target them.
The authorities therefore maintain that the fight against galamsey cannot be won through occasional national operations alone.
The continued presence of houses, shops and other economic activities around some illegal mining locations demonstrates how deeply the practice has become embedded in certain communities.
For that reason, the government is combining arrests and destruction of mining equipment with permanent security deployments, local intelligence and greater coordination among state agencies.
The Osino operation is the latest demonstration of that strategy in action.
Twelve suspected illegal miners have been arrested, mining equipment has been destroyed and an illegal operation that had re-emerged after an earlier clearance has once again been disrupted.
The repeated return of miners to the same site may underscore the stubbornness of the galamsey menace, but it has also prompted the government to intensify rather than abandon its enforcement strategy.
With NAIMOS insisting on permanent deployments and stronger local intervention, the latest operation signals that authorities are determined not merely to clear illegal mining sites, but to prevent operators from repeatedly reclaiming them once security personnel leave.
The battle remains difficult, but the government’s latest interventions show a sustained effort to confront the problem—and, in Osino, another illegal mining operation has been dismantled despite the persistent attempts of miners to return.