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More than 17 illegal miners, popularly known as ‘galamsey’ operators, have been confirmed dead in a mining pit at Nsuta, a gold mining community near Bondaye in the Prestea Huni Valley District of the Western Region.

The unfortunate incident, which occurred at about 3:00 a.m., on Sunday, July 2, 2017, has since left many residents of the area wondering what might have been the cause(s).

Speaking in an interview with Today on Monday, July 4, 2017, an illegal gold miner, Mr. Ibrahim Musah, who was also working in the same underground pit, revealed that “17 miners died on the day of that gory incident.”

He blamed the ‘galamsey’ committee at Nsuta for negligence.

According to him, he heard a large sound, and so he quickly warned them, but some of the miners ignored his warning.

“I heard a blast, so I called my boy, but I saw he had been trapped in the cage upstairs,” he narrated.

He recalled that “while I was crying, one boy just fell in front of me, from the top. And when I asked him, he said he left the pit when he heard the blast at the top, and confirmed that one of my boys had been trapped. We managed to pass through the other exit, about 50 of us.”

He pointed out that they wanted to rescue those trapped, but it was difficult because there was too much from the blast.