Takoradi, April 17 - Eighteen gold miners have been confirmed dead and another 30 are still trapped one day after an illegal mine collapsed in western Ghana, police said on Tuesday.

Attempts to rescue the 30 men still trapped in an abandoned mineshaft at Nsuapim, about 400km west of the capital, Accra, are being hampered by a lack of earth-moving equipment, they said.

Area police Commander Daniel Sampana said he has sought help from one of the big mining companies in the area, Bogoso Gold, which has offered excavators. Bogoso is a subsidiary of Canada's Golden Star Resources.

Illegal gold mining has been a source of concern for both the Ghanaian government and the big mining companies.

Illegal miners often take over abandoned mineshafts and galleries in order to dig for gold there on a small scale. Left without maintenance for years, these structures sometimes cave in on the miners.

Eight Galamsey operators trapped to death

Wassa Dadieso (W/R) April 17, -GNA- Eight illegal mining operators popularly known as glamsey operators were trapped to death in a pit which caved in at Wassa Dadieso in Wassa Amenfi East District of the Western Region yesterday.

Only the ninth person, Kwame Nsowah, who sustained injuries survived the accident.

This is the second time in about two decades that this same pit has caved in. In the first one, sixty galamsey operators were trapped and all of them died. As a result of the first incidence the pit is referred to as "Kum Eduosia" which literally means, the pit that killed sixty people.

The eight retrieved dead bodies have since been deposited at Wassa Akropong Government Hospital.

According to an eye witness, a galamsey operator, who only gave his name as Rasta said at about 2300 hours, he and a friend were walking towards the pit and all they could hear was a strange noise which shook the ground.

He said, they traced the noise to the pit in which they operated, so they quickly rushed to the scene only to realise that the pit had caved in, trapping the people inside.

Mrs Doris Agyepoma Oduro, Amenfi East District Chief Executive, said she discussed the case with the Medical Doctor in- charge of the Hospital to do medical checks on the bodies and hand them over to the police who would in turn hand the bodies over to their respective families for burial because the hospital has no mortuary.

The eight dead bodies were made up of five women and three men. They were identified as Yaa Atta, 32, mother of four, Ekua Akoma, 30 Mother of four, Ekua Ninka, 35, mother of five, Comfort Dindiego, 24, mother of one and Salamatu Mumuni 25 who has two children The rest are Kwame Edim, 26, father of one while the remaining two were only identified as citizens of Prestea-Dumase and Kumasi-Krofofrom.

The DCE said owing to the recent exercise by the National Security to flush out galamsey operators who have encroached on mining concessions in the various mining areas, a large number of galamsey operators have migrated to Wassa Didieso area to operate.

She regretted that in spite of her outfit sensitizing galamesy operators on the National Youth Employment Programme, non of them have even come to register.

Mrs Agyepoma Oduro expressed her condolence to the bereaved families and said her outfit would do all within it means to bring out the others who were trapped in the pit.

When contacted, Dr. Frederick Yaw Sarporng the medical superintendent of the Wassa Akropong Government Hospital said five out of the eight died from suffocation while the remaining three died of head injuries.

Meanwhile, the police led by the Tarkwa Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Daniel Sapark Sampana said the Police is doing their best to retrieve the remaining bodies, saying, investigations so far conducted indicated that there are other people who are in the pit.

This incident has thrown the people and chiefs of Wassa Amenfi East district and its environs into a state of mourning. 17 April 07