Nine Dead In Gbane Pit

Nine persons trapped in an underground mining pit at Gbane in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region have been confirmed dead.

The miners were trapped in tunnels in the underground pit following a heavy downpour on Tuesday, June 1.

A rescue team retrieved their bodies after spending almost three days pumping water out of the pit.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Upper East Regional Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr David Fianko-Okyere, confirmed the deaths.

He, however, noted that the rescue team had intensified the search to ascertain if more bodies are in the pit.

Against the background of recent mining accidents at Gbane, the Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu said there will be a committee to investigate and find lasting solutions to the problem.

“In order to for this not to happen again, we should set up a Committee that will look into this small-scale mining here. We are talking about our region and particularly this area,” he said.

Mr Yakubu added that, “In Ghana, we have been mining for about 100 years, and this time what we are seeing, we must learn from it.”

A rescue team consisting of the police, Regional Security Coordinator, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), and Association of Small-Scale Miners were sent to the site when the incident occurred.

History of trapped miners in Gbane

In November 2019, two Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited workers, Jonathan Teengbil and Solomon Tohsonba, also at Gbane, died in an underground mine.

The two were watering an area when a hanging heavy boulder fell, trapping them in a muck.

A team arrived at the scene to their rescue, and they were rushed to the hospital but pronounced dead on arrival.

In a related development, a mine blast that occurred at Gbane in 2017 killed seven people.

The miners were said to have died after inhaling toxic fumes from the explosion while underground.

Other incidents

A similar incident occurred in November 2020, where eight miners died when an illegal mining (galamsey) pit they were working in collapsed on them at Ayanfuri in the Central region.

Recently, three persons died while dozens were trapped in a collapsed mine pit in Breman and the Central Region.

The incident happened in an abandoned mining pit of large-scale mining that an anti-illegal mining task force had closed.