Over 1,500 illegal gold miners on Friday clashed with a joint civilian/police and military team dispatched to flush out the miners from a concession owned by Goldfields Damang Gold Mines, in the Prestea Huni-Valley District of the Western Region. The exercise, code-named “operation flush out” was sanctioned by the National Security and was aimed at evacuating the miners to pave way for the expansion of the company’s operations. The exercise started at about 5:00am, when the miners, operating in the company’s enclave, were busily searching for gold with torchlight from the heap of sand that had been excavated. Upon seeing the security personnel the miners stopped the search, signaled each other and positioned themselves in readiness for any eventuality. The leaders of the joint task force explained that they had not come for war but to peacefully ask them to vacate the concession since it was the sole property of Goldfields Damang. They said announcements had run on radio for three weeks in addition to a letter that was issued to the miners three days before the operation to notify them that the company was ready to mine on the land. They thus gave the miners the option to move their equipment out of the area so the District Security Council (DISEC) and its stakeholders could discuss an alternative for them. The miners however said they needed to survive at all cost and vowed to go to every length to ensure that their daily bread was not taken from them. According to them, they had been taken for granted for too long. They accused Goldfields Damang Mines of not having their welfare at heart, and described the management of the company as wicked and heartless because according to them, whilst in some mining communities the locals have been offered concessions by the host companies; the story with Goldfields Damang is entirely different. According to them, although they had been mining in the area before the company’s surface mining started in 1997, they were evicted from that concession in 2007 and in 2009, yet the company did nothing on the land only for them to return now to evict them again. They accused the company of failing on its numerous promises to offer them alternative land after every eviction hence their decision not to vacate this time around. The miners appealed to the task force to give them a grace period of three months to recoup their investments particularly as Christmas approaches so they could celebrate with their families. The deliberations lasted for close to five hours, but reached a deadlock as the miners; men and women, boys and girls, started chanting war songs and burning tyres. The firing of tear gas started when in the midst of the negotiations, some of the miners boldly turned on their equipment and started work. Warning shots were also fired as the crowd grew rowdy. The miners started pelting the security personnel stones and they also fired more teargas, suffocating miners, journalists and some security personnel. As the miners ran into the nearby bushes, their makeshift structures and mining equipment were set ablaze whilst some were confiscated. Barrels of oil used to power the mining equipment were also wasted. After tensions had calmed down, some of the miners were allowed to carry their equipment to safety but no arrest was made. The miners, who had threatened reprisal attacks, later mounted roadblocks on major roads to the mines, damaged the company’s bus and burnt some kiosks. The irate youth have also set ablaze a car belonging to the Chief of Huni-Valley who they accuse of conniving with the company’s foreign managers to stop their activities. They also went into the Damang Township where they caused a lot of havoc and ended up stealing bags of rice, which had been stored to be given out to workers of Damang Gold Mine this Christmas.