The leader of a combined team of armed police and military personnel deployed to various parts of the country to fight illegal mining activities under the name “Operation Vanguard” Colonel William Agyapong has disclosed that the exercise is not going to be a brush over.

According to him, it is going to be sustained indicating that the second phase is to ensure that those who are secretly engaging in illegal mining activities in the forest are stopped.

“We are making some gains but I want to assure you that it is not going to be a nine-day wonder as many are thinking. This is going to be a sustained exercise and we will go into the forest to arrest all those who are secretly engaging in mining activities there. Let me use this medium to serve notice to them to either stop or we will come after them”, he disclosed on Kumasi-based Abusua Fm.

According to him, the Operation Vanguard is currently on the ground in three regions indicating that troops will soon be deployed to the other seven to curb the disastrous effects of mining that is affecting the environment.

He was satisfied with the achievements chalked so far stating that majority of illegal miners have complied and stopped their operations except for the few bud nuts who continue to operate under the cover of darkness in the forest

“We are doing a very long haul and after a year we can review our strategy if we see that what we rolled out is not yielding the needed results. We have a strategy and we are doing it systematically. Majority of illegal miners have stopped and that is evident by the over 370 excavators parked on the shoulders of the road from Kumasi to Obuasi and other areas”, he emphasized.