Hope Fades For ‘Galamsey’ Men

The mission to search and retrieve the bodies of some 40 miners who got trapped in a disused pit at Nyafoman-Noyem may be abandoned since the teams engaged in the exercise have described it as hazardous.

Although a rescue team from Dunkwa Continental Goldfield has joined rescue teams from AngloGold Ashanti and Newmont Ghana Ltd the operation is being undermined by the conditions in the operational area and the weak props supporting the pits, which could endanger the men and machinery being used.

Ms Mawuena Dumor, the communications manager of Newmont, told the paper that the team came to the conclusion that the mission had become very unsafe following the discovery of another illegal hole, measuring 200 feet, near the area where the excavator started digging for the bodies last Saturday.

She said the area had become very dangerous because the illegal pit was supported by rudimentary, primitive and weak structures.

Ms Dumor said that notwithstanding, the mining industry would continue to offer humanitarian support to the operation and noted that the managing director of Dunkwa Continental Goldfields was on his way to Nyanfoman-Noyem to work with the rescue team and assess the situation.