President John Dramani Mahama has directed the task force combating illegal small-scale mining in the country to confiscate excavators they come across and not burn them. "I've told them not to burn the excavators.
They should confiscate them," the President disclosed in a meeting with members of the Christian Council at the Presidency in Accra on Friday.
The new directive marks a shift from the approach where excavators used in illegal mining activities were burnt on site in the past.
The renewed fight against the illegal mining menace which has left large swathe of lands degraded, water bodies polluted and forests depleted has come to the fore again, following revelations that illegal miners have returned to their nefarious activities.
