Ghanaian gospel musician, Great Ampong, has disclosed that he used to be involved in illegal mining also known as ‘galamsey’ before he started doing music.
He indicated that his attempt to get employment led him to do galamsey at Tarkwa in the Western North region where he spent six years.
The gospel musician admitted that galamsey was a difficult thing to do, considering the dangers associated with it.
He noted that he motivated himself and did it for six years in order to earn an income to cater for himself and his immediate family.
Great Ampong, who was recounting his past memories narrated how galamsey is done.
“I did galamsey for six years at Tarkwa. We weren’t destroying the waterbodies like others do. We were working in a pit. The level of the pit could be like ten times a light poll length. So we go deep into the pit and mine for gold.
"We had a small space for directing the water to pass through. The first day I got to the site ten people had died in the pit and their dead bodies were lying on the ground. It wasn’t easy when I saw it but I wasn’t terrified,” Great Ampong told Abeiku Santana in an interview with Okay FM and monitored by GhanaWeb.
“I had a friend, when we entered the pit and looked at how dangerous it was, he was contemplating whether to continue with the work or not.”
When he was asked apart from mining what else did he do prior to music, he retorted, “ I was also a footballer and I like playing a lot.”
Gospel musician, Great Ampong