Aowin Soaman foresters have, by order of a court, destroyed 304 thousand Ghana cedis worth of metal gold detectors used to locate gold in the soil.

The gold metal detectors are said to have been imported by foreigners from other countries to engage in illegal mining in forest reserves.

The device which is aided by a headphone monitoring device, signals miners the exact location of the gold.

Illegal miners no longer have to spend much time and energy to search for the mineral resource like it is done elsewhere.

All they need is to monitor with the device.

Foresters in the Aowin Soaman forest reserves lament the situation is alarming and should be tackled with a serious mindset to protect the forest.

Enchi District forest manager, Mark Gyamfi Aidoo and his men are on a hunt for the illegal miners whose prime effort is to degrade the forest reserves.

So far, Tano Anwiah and Tano Numre forest reserves have been invaded by the galamseyers. Some trees have been affected due to the activities of the miners. foresters are on a serious lookout for the illegal miners.

They say it is however quite difficult to locate the illegal miners because they use small "gold Metal detector" devices.

Efforts of the district foresters plus the municipal command have resulted in the arrest of about ten persons including four foreigners.

They have been prosecuted and charged by the Tarkwa circuit court. Two of them have been repatriated by the Ghana immigration service while the other two jumped bail.

District forest manager, Mr. Gyamfi says, sureties are before Enchi magistrate court.

More than 20 gold metal detectors have also been confiscated in a number of operations conducted by forest officials.



The court has therefore ordered the forest officials to burn 19 of the devices.

According to Mark Aidoo, each device costs about 16 thousand Ghana cedis, a total of which is 304 thousand Ghana cedis.

He says, efforts have been put in place to monitor the activities of the illegal miners in the forest.