The fight against illegal small scale mining locally known as galamsey has been 85% successfully, the Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources, Kwaku Asomah Kyeremeh has announced.

Mr Kyeremeh made the announcement during a meet the press conference in Accra on Wednesday September 11, 2019.

The Minister attributed the recent success in the fight against ‘galamsey’ to the efforts of the government which include the deployment of military personnel across a number of mining sites owned by large-scale mining companies as well small-scale artisanal miners.

“Practically when you walk around the areas, the report that we are getting from soldiers and security agencies we have deployed in the various districts show that most of such activities that were being done especially in the forest areas have been stopped,” he said.

“Comparatively, if you look at it today as compared to 2017 and 2018, you would see that illegal mining has reasonably come down. Those times when you stand at one end of a land, you will see people in dugged trenches all over. This is not the case now. An example is the Apramprama Forest Reserve,” he added.

He said despite the success, there is still a percentage of people on the ground who are still engaged in the activity.