The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Tong Defa, has asked Chinese residents in Ghana to stay away from illegal mining activities in the country popularly called (galamsey).
He also urged the Ghanaian government to deal with Chinese nationals engaged in illegal mining activities in Ghana, to serve as deterrent to others.
The law, he said, must take its full course on any Chinese who disrespect the laws of Ghana by involving in the destruction of water bodies and vegetative cover of the country.
Mr Defa said these in response to a question about the involvement of his compatriots involvement in illegal mining during his maiden engagement with selected journalists at his residence on Thursday in Accra.
The Chinese Ambassador said the Chinese government discouraged its citizens from undertaking illegal mining activities in Ghana.
He said there was a Chinese company doing legitimate mining business under strict environmental mining laws in the Upper East Region of Ghana.
“We support rule of law and so we discourage Chinese nationals from breaking the law”.
While acknowledging that not all Chinese in Ghana engage in illegal mining, Mr Defa said China’s position on enforcement remains unchanged.
He said in 2018, President Xi Jinping urged President Akufo-Addo to punish those who engage in illegal mining.
Currently, Ghana is grappling with the menace of illegal mining, as calls for its outright ban intensifies.
Apart from the destruction to the environment, including the pollution of rivers and other water bodies which served as sources of drinking water, the chemicals used in illegal mining poses serious health threats such as kidney diseases, and increased number of mothers in some mining communities giving birth to children with disabilities.
Some medical doctors, scientists, environmentalists, the media and lawyers had expressed concern about the devastation caused by the activities of illegal mining.
The Tertiary University Teachers Association (TUTAG) is the latest to join the call for declaration of state of emergency on illegal mining.
Worst still, illegal mining contributes to food shortages nationwide, as farmers sold out cocoa farms, crops and vegetable farms to illegal miners.
At the 2024 Annual Conference of the Ghana Bar Association in Kumasi on September 9, the Attorney-General (A-G) and Minister of Justice, Mr Godfred Yeboah, said even though there is still room for more to be done in prosecuting illegal mining offences, the state had achieved some success in convictions and sentencing of offenders.
Mr Dame said that 76 persons, including 18 foreigners had so far been convicted from August 2021 to date.
He said the convicts who were serving various sentences in prisons nationwide, include the acclaimed Chinese galamsey queen, En Huang, also known as Aisha Huang who was convicted on December, 4, 2023 of offences committed between 2014 and 2016.
The A-G and Minister of Justice noted that most of the convicts were sentenced under the new law – Act 995 to a minimum of 15 years plus a heavy fine in the case of a Ghanaian and a minimum of 20 years plus a hefty fine for a non-Ghanaian.
He said currently, over 140 cases of illegal mining involving more than 850 accused were being prosecuted in courts in the Western, Eastern, Ashanti, Greater Accra and Upper East regions of Ghana with some nearing conclusion.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA