4,700 foreign illegal miners deported

Over 4700 foreign illegal miners were deported last year.

The miners mainly Chinese were deported following their arrest by the government taskforce on illegal mining.

They were accused of flouting the mining laws by engaging in small scale mining without permits.

President Mahama who disclosed this said government needs technical support to totally flush out illegal miners.

He was opening a session on Responsible Mineral Development Initiative at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

“Recently we had an invasion of foreign nationals into the mining sector we had to carry out an exercise to evict them. and so we deported more than 4,700 small scale miners from different countries.”

President Mahama said government is not happy with the agitations from the mining companies over attempts to review the mining regime.