NAIMOS expands galamsey crackdown to equipment suppliers, seizes 22 Chanfang machines
The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) has announced plans to broaden its crackdown on illegal mining by targeting individuals and businesses involved in manufacturing, assembling, transporting, storing, supplying or providing equipment used for the activity.
The expanded strategy was demonstrated during a major NAIMOS operation at Eshaem in the Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region, where task force personnel disrupted several illegal mining sites along the stretch from the Eshaem road towards the Ankobra River.
During the operation, the task force destroyed 28 chanfang machines, 19 water pumps and five makeshift structures used to support illegal mining activities.
Several illegal mining sites were identified along the operational corridor, including two major locations near the Ankobra River.
At one site, the team discovered evidence of recent excavator activity, while three excavators were found at another location. A monitor was retrieved from one of the machines, while essential components had already been removed from the others.
The operation took a different turn as the task force was returning from the area and encountered a Hyundai truck carrying 22 brand-new chanfang machines being unloaded into a store.
The truck and all 22 machines were seized. A nearby store was also discovered to contain a large quantity of equipment and spare parts linked to illegal mining.
The premises were secured to allow further investigations into the origin, ownership and intended destination of the equipment.
NAIMOS said destroying machinery at illegal mining sites alone would not provide a lasting solution, as operators could quickly replace the equipment and resume activities along the country’s rivers.
The Secretariat is therefore extending its enforcement efforts beyond mining sites to target the supply chains and logistical networks that sustain illegal mining.
Under the new strategy, particular attention will be given to chanfang fabricators, equipment manufacturers and assemblers, dealers, suppliers, transporters, warehouses and stores, as well as individuals who knowingly rent excavators, pumps and other machinery for illegal mining.
NAIMOS also intends to intensify intelligence gathering to identify locations where illegal mining equipment is manufactured, assembled, stored and distributed.
The objective is to prevent illegal miners from quickly replacing machinery destroyed during enforcement operations and weaken the supply networks that enable the continued destruction of Ghana’s rivers, farmlands and other environmentally sensitive areas.
The Eshaem operation forms part of Operation WATER SHIELD, an initiative aimed at protecting the Ankobra River, which continues to face pressure from illegal mining in parts of the Western Region.
NAIMOS said it would sustain operations along the river corridor while targeting the networks responsible for supplying machinery, fuel, transportation and other logistical support for illegal mining.
The Secretariat has warned that individuals 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 stressed that the fight against illegal mining would extend beyond riverbanks to workshops where equipment is manufactured, stores where it is kept, vehicles used to transport it and networks involved in financing and supplying the operations.
NAIMOS added that it would continue collaborating with relevant security and regulatory agencies to investigate the ownership and supply chains of equipment intercepted during operations and take appropriate action where links to illegal mining are established.
The Secretariat emphasised that those supplying the machinery and infrastructure used to destroy Ghana’s rivers would also be targeted as enforcement efforts expand.
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