Nine persons, according to a Ghana News Agency (GNA) report, have been confirmed dead, while search is still ongoing after downpour flooded mining pits at Gbane, a gold mining community in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region.
The deceased, aged between 21 and 53 years, who were said to be among some small scale miners in the mining pits, were trapped after heavy rains in some parts of the Upper East Region.
Assistant Superintended of Police (ASP), Mr David Fianko-Okyere, the Public Relations Officer of the Upper East Regional Police Command has confirmed the story and noted that efforts were still underway to rescue the rest of the people trapped underground.
According to the PRO, the initial information gathered from the small scale miners indicated 13 persons had initially gone underground, however, six who had information about the heavy rain and windstorm were able to retreat and got out of the pit before it got flooded.
ASP Fianko-Okyere noted that it was possible that the survivors had the number wrong as nine persons were already retrieved and added that the rescue operation was still ongoing to be certain.
“In fact, out of the 13, six were able to come out alive themselves, when they heard the heavy wind and rain, because at that time they had not gone deep down. They said they shouted for their colleagues who were down to come out, but they could not respond. They gave information that seven persons would have remained in the pit, but when we got there, we were able to retrieve nine, meaning that they did not have the right number of people and that is why the search is still ongoing,” the PRO was quoted as saying.
Though this is not the first time the public is witnessing a case of this nature, we are still worried over the development. Apart from the painful loss of human lives, the victims are obviously bread winners of their respective families and the cascading effect cannot be downplayed. Per the story we are referencing, the deceased persons were doing small scale mining and not galamsey.
If this is true, it raises questions about the sort of training these young men received before venturing into the business. Small scale mining companies are supposed to have experts who would orient them on how mine, especially when drilling a hole.
Though large scale underground mining companies, with all the expertise at their disposal also do experience accidents, what we are being told in the Gbane case tells a story of the pits they were working in not properly excavated.
Though mining has created employment for a number of our youth, it has nevertheless become a pain in our neck as a country and something urgent must be done to reverse the trend. If this mine is indeed a legal small scale one, the chief inspector of mines in the area ought to have known that the boys were working in a dangerous pit. The Chronicle is, therefore, calling for internal investigation into the incident if the victims were indeed small scale miners, to ascertain the cause of the accident.
But if these victims are not small scale miners, but illegal miners, then the unfortunate incident re-enforces the hard stance of the government to stop illegal mining activities in the country. The nation cannot afford to lose its working class in the manner we are seeing and we must all support the government to stop illegal mining.
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