The continues activities of illegal mining activities in Ghana and the fast degradation of the environment has compelled President John Mahama to literally throw out the illegal miners out of the country.

About 80percent of the foreign illegal miners in Ghana are Chinese who are sometimes very aggressive and in their dealings and have sometimes killed Ghanaians who try to challenge their operations.

Many water bodies have also been destroyed and there is mounting pressure from Ghanaians on the government to salvage the situation.

Commissioning an inter-ministerial taskforce on illegal mining, President John Dramani Mahama directed the committee to facilitate the arrest, prosecution and deportation of all foreign nationals involved in illegal mining in that country.

The Lands and Natural Resources Minister Alhaji Inusah Fuseini will chair the taskforce with representatives from the Ministers of Defence, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Science and Environment.

“Your task is simple and straight forward. It is to actualize my determination to bring sanity into the mining sector including my pledge to ensure that the small scale mining sector is reserved for Ghanaians as stated by law.

“You are being put together to work and coordinate the various efforts because the activities of the illegal small scale mining breeds consequences that are multi-faceted and cut across sectors”, the president said.

President Mahama added: “Small scale mining has become a security threat and a danger to the environment and we need to deal with it in a more systematic manner than we have done in the past.