The 7 Chinese illegal miners
THE POLICE in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, have apprehended seven Chinese nationals and their two Ghanaian accomplices for prospecting for gold on someone’s concession.
The accused Chinese nationals are Jiang Shi Xin, Lu Jian Xiang, Jiang Yao Zhong, Ye Sheng Zhong, Zhang Jian Zhong, Chen Lian Li and Xie Guiang, all miners of Hansol Mining Company, Kumasi.
Their Ghanaian counterparts who are also in police grips are Evans Agropa and Daniel Gyawu, the general manager and site manager respectively of Hansol Mining Company.
The arrested persons have allegedly been prospecting for gold on a concession at Manso Abodom in the Amansie West District Assembly, belonging to ORE Royal Mining Company Limited, Accra.
ASP Mohammed Yussif Tanko, PRO, Ashanti Regional Police Command, told the media that Baffuor Awuah Frimpong and Kwame Nuako, both directors of ORE Royal Mining Company Limited, Accra, lodged a complaint to the police about the illegal activities of the arrested persons.
According to him, the complainants, in May 2012, through the Amansie West District Assembly, acquired license by the minister of Minerals and Natural Resources to prospect for minerals on three mining concessions at Manso Abodom for a period of five years.
He said somewhere in June 2012, the director of Hansol Mining Company, one Bernard Antwi, without mining operational license, moved mining equipment, the accused persons and some other people, now at large, to the three mining concessions, to prospect for gold.
The complainants were immediately informed about the illegal operations of the Hansol Mining Company officials by their concession managers, so they quickly intervened in an attempt to stop the invaders from further engaging in illegal mining on their concession, but to no avail.
ASP Tanko said on February 2, 2013, the directors of ORE Royal Mining Company Limited reported the matter to the Ashanti regional police who duly arrested the suspects busily prospecting for minerals on the concession on February 13, 2013.
The police found a pump action gun with 69 AA cartridges on the arrested persons when they mounted a thorough search on them during the arrest, the Police PRO disclosed.
The arrested Chinese nationals, he said, in their caution statements, through an interpreter, admitted to the offence, explaining that the director of Hansol Mining Company Limited, made them to understand that their company had been issued with a small scale mining license to operate on the concession.
ASP Tanko said the police were still investigating the matter adding that they were leaving no stone unturned to arrest the director of Hansol Mining Company Limited and some other people in connection with the case, to assist the police in their investigations.
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