Ghana’s anti illegal mining taskforce, the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat, known as NAIMOS, arrested 11 suspected illegal miners on October 29 in operations across the Western and Eastern regions. Four suspects were arrested in the Western Region and seven in the Eastern Region, at sites including the Cape Three Points Forest in Ahanta West, Abrokyire-Krobo in Wassa Amenfi East, and Apapam-Asikem in Abuakwa South. Chanfang machines, water pumps, generators and makeshift structures were destroyed, and NAIMOS said it was concerned by signs of mining resuming at previously cleared sites.
Two days later the strategy itself was the news. On Saturday October 31, NAIMOS director of operations Colonel K. S. Appiah met Amenfi West member of parliament Eric Afful and set out a move away from temporary enforcement raids toward a sustained clear, stabilise, monitor and handover approach, supported by riverine operations with the Ghana Navy. Rivers, forest reserves and areas around critical public infrastructure remain strict no go zones, Appiah said, and he appealed to political, traditional and community leaders not to intervene on behalf of arrested suspects or seek the release of seized equipment. In Amenfi Central the same week, miners fled sites at Bodie and Nyamebekyere as NAIMOS personnel fired warning shots, and Appiah urged operators to take up licensing and responsible mining instead.
Jurisdiction watch: Ghana’s pattern now matches Nigeria’s, where the solid minerals minister endorsed a permanent army battalion for the Zurak area on October 30 after an inquiry into 37 deaths. In both countries the state is conceding that episodic clearance does not hold ground, and moving to permanent presence. For formal producers the effect is indirect but real: sustained enforcement raises the cost of informal supply that competes with licensed small scale output and feeds Ghana’s new gold purchasing and formalisation channels, while doing nothing yet to speed formal mine permitting.