The government has ordered local manufacturers to stop producing changfang machines with immediate effect.

The directive is part of measures the government is taking to clampdown on illegal mining activities, popularly called galamsey.

The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr George Mireku Duker, who gave that directive, stressed that any person or group who flout the directive would be arrested and severely dealt with according to the law.

The Deputy Minister gave that directive Friday, August 20 when he inaugurated a 40-member Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners (GNASSM) taskforce in kumasi.

Mr George Mireku Duker, Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources inspecting the taskforce

Chanfang motors are floating contraptions used by galamsey operators to wash the ore during mining and contribute to the high pollution of water bodies in the desperate search for gold. While some of the machines are imported, others are produced locally.

Since the government started an all-out fight against galamsey in 2017, thousands of those equipment have been seized and burnt by the security agencies deployed to fight the menace.

The latest directive means that no new Chanfang machines would be in the system because their importation had been banned earlier.

Mr George Mireku Duker, Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources

The Deputy Minister indicated that the Taskforce that had been inaugurated was an instant taskforce to curb illegal mining on rivers, including the Ankobra.

He also announced the formation and inauguration of Regional taskforces to support the current operation on rivers bodies.