AlQa'dah 30, 1433, Oct 16, 2012, SPA - A 16-year-old Chinese national was killed as Ghanaian security officials raided small-scale mines in Ghana's central Ashanti region, an immigration official confirmed Monday. A hundred people were arrested in the raids, which took place on October 10 and 11 in the West African country's gold-rich region. "The victim had a weapon and tried to fire at security personnel. There was a fire exchange, in which he was injured," immigration service spokesperson Francis Palmdeti told dpa. The young man was taken to hospital in Kumasi, 150 kilometres north-west of the capital, Accra. He later died at the hospital, Palmdeti said. The two-day raid on foreign artisanal miners saw 100 people arrested, and taken to the Immigration Service headquarters in Accra. Artisanal mining licenses are reserved for Ghanaian nationals, Palmdeti said, but there has been "a rise in foreign participation in this area, especially by the Chinese." The arrested Chinese nationals will likely be repatriated to China, he added. Ghana is Africa's second biggest gold producer after South Africa, and produced 1.6 million ounces of the metal in the first half of 2012. According to a recent report, in 2011 it produced nearly half of the West African region's entire gold yield.
