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Sam Pyne has pleaded with the soldiers deployed to mining sites and mining authorities not to burn excavators seized from illegal miners.

The burning of the excavators has been proffered as the best act to deter people from venturing into illegal mining in Ghana.

For the past weeks, discussions about illegal mining, otherwise referred to as galamsey, have dominated the airwaves.

This is because the activities of illegal miners have had a bad impact on the country, particularly communities where such activities are carried out.

The country's waterbodies, lands and forest reserves have been polluted and destroyed by illegal miners.

The President, in his commitment to end the galamsey menace, has deployed 200 soldiers with an order to remove all persons and logistics involved in illegal mining.

Also as part of fighting the menace, there have been calls for the excavators used by illegal miners to be burned.

But reacting to the issue on Peace FM's 'Kokokroo' programme, Sam Pyne advised that the excavators should rather be seized instead of burning them.

He explained that it wouldn't augur well for every excavator to be burned because there may be some that are used by persons or entities with authorization or permit to engage in small-scale mining.

He called on the authorities to exercise restraint saying, "they should exercise restraint with burning them...With the excavators, I believe they should mark them well. There should be proper identification".