ACCRA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Ghana's ongoing anti-illegal mining campaign would not endanger or affect its good relationship with China, Ghanaian Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur told Xinhua Friday.
He lauded legal Chinese enterprises and their contribution to the economic and social progress in the western African country.
The vice president reiterated that government efforts to crack down on illegal mining were not targeting Chinese nationals but the illegal activity itself.
"We have tried very hard to point out to people that it is not the Chinese that my government is after," Amissah-Arthur said. "It is all types, all kinds of illegal operations and there are many of them where there are Ghanaians only."
He said illegal foreign miners had blatantly disregarded the country's laws on small-scale artisanal mining and had introduced massive earth moving equipment into surface mining, which had led to massive environmental degradation and water pollution.
Last month, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama launched an inter-ministerial task force on illegal mining to arrest, prosecute and deport any foreign nationals found in small-scale mining in Ghana and punish the locals involved.
Many foreign nationals engaging in illegal mining were arrested and detained by the security forces, including 169 Chinese workers.
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