A young Ghanaian man, Nana Agyepong, was on Sunday caught red-handed engaging in illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
Agyapong was busy in the act of illegal mining near a river at Hiawa in the Amenfi Central District of the Western Region when luck ran out on him.
The galamsey operator had reportedly blocked and diverted the course of a nearby river to help him in his mining operation.
Unfortunately for him, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr John Peter Amewu, who was on a tour of the area spotted the illegal miner at work.
Amewu immediately asked a taskforce to grab the machines being used, which included a water pumping machine and a generator.Â
The minister and his two deputies as well as some officials of the Minerals Commission visited Dominase, Gwira-Tumantu, Hiawa and Tarkwa-Breman in the Nzema East Municipality, Amenfi Central and Prestea Huni-Valley Districts in the Western Region.Â
The trip comes as government clamps down on illegal mining which is destroying the environment, especially lands and water bodies.