The Environmental Sustainability Taskforce of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) last Monday strayed into a duly registered mining site and confiscated excavators and several other items.

The Taskforce, which is charged to save the forest from illegal mining operations was said to be officially bound for parts of the Western Region, but managed to invade the concession of Kingsperp Mining Limited in an unauthorized operation.

A Director of the Mining firm, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told the Ghana News Agency that, the Taskforce which arrived at the mining site in a vehicle belonging to the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, took away 10 excavators, including CAT 349EL, CAT 345DL, CAT336DL, CAT330DL, SANY 365, SANY 335, SANY 335 and three LIUGONG 936.

The team, which mistook the activities of the Kingsperp Mining Limited in its concession at Aboaboso area in the Oda River Forest Reserve in the Amansie West and Amansie Central districts of the Ashanti Region as illegal, also seized four pieces of pump action gun, 30 grams of gold, GH¢3,800.00, one phone, ID cards, two pieces of satellite phones, a motorola radio and 10 pieces of headlights from the workers at the site.

Other items confiscated by the Taskforce included eight pump action guns the security men use for protection, 12 mobile phones from the security personnel and about 15,000 litres of diesel, two Toyota Hilux pick-up vehicles and Land Cruiser trooper.

The confiscated excavators and the other items have been dumped at the premises of the Ghana Heavy Equipment Limited in Kumasi for the owners to come and pay a fine to retrieve their items.

Meanwhile, investigations by the GNA, which have been corroborated by authorization documents, fees and charges paid and others, copies of which are available to the GNA, revealed that Kingsperp Mining Limited has a mining lease agreement between the Government of Ghana since April 30, 2020 and duly granted by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.

The gold mining rights expire on April 29, 2030.

The mining company has since paid mining fees including US$84,400.00 as annual mineral right quoted by the Minerals Commission for the 28.35 square kilometres of 135 blocks concession in the Aboaboso area in the Oda River Forest Reserve in the Amansie West and Central Districts of the Ashanti Region.

The company has also duly paid various fees to the government and has the permit of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) since February 14, 2020, to do prospecting which activity expires on February 13, 2022.

The Forestry Commission (FC) has also since May 19, 2020, notified the Ashanti Regional Manager and the District Manager of the Forest Services Division in Kumasi and Bekwai respectively, about the gold mining rights of Messrs Kingsperp Mining Limited in the Oda River Forest Reserve for a period of ten years.