Residents of Ahafo Region and the five communities affected by the multi-million-dollar Newmont Africa’s Ahafo North Mine project in the Tano Municipality say they are ready to receive the company to mine the area.
Charles Bright Boakye, Community Leader of the Terchire, one of the five communities affected by the project, assured the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr Sulemanu Koney who was in the region as part of his quarterly visits to mining companies under the Chamber.
Mr Boakye said: “We are ready to receive Newmont. As a community leader, I am very happy with the process of addressing the speculative activities challenge. We must thank the Regional Minister, George Boakye for his timely intervention”.
The speculative activities on the project and others have led to the suspension of the project although the mining giant is ready to invest an initial amount of $850 million into the mine with a three-year development timeline for the 13-year mine life project with significant upside potential.
Newmont Africa which is a subsidiary of Newmont Corporation is Ghana’s leading gold producer with two gold mining operations in Ghana: Ahafo South Mine in the Ahafo region and the Akyem Mine in the Eastern region, has secured environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the Ahafo North project.
Frantic efforts to start the project heightened
Although the construction works of the project have been suspended due to the challenges, frantic efforts are being made to address them to bring the project on stream.
To this end, Newmont Africa has concluded discussions with government, traditional authorities and community stakeholders and commenced payment for the removal of over 8,000 speculative unauthorised structures within the project.
Taking the Chamber CEO and his team and some members of Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA) are the project areas, the Communications and External Affairs Manager of Newmont Ahafo North Project and Newmont Ahafo South Mine, Samuel Osei, said the company is spending GHS45 million on the unauthorised structure owners.
He explained payment of the package was to relieve the illegal property owners of some level of financial stress, and to pave the way for the company to demolish the structures.
The company is expected to demolish about 9,721 illegal structures on the concession before dealing with the legal structure on the concession, Mr Osei added.
He told the journalists that in 2017, the company declared the enclave a mining area, which meant that nobody had the right to put up any structure on the concession, while the company finalised modalities to pay compensation on existing structures.
To this end, the company posted notices in the affected communities, but he added that some of the residents ignored and engaged in the speculative activities on the mine’s concession.
With the payment of the relief package, Mr Osei is hopeful that communities around the mine would cooperate with the company for construction work to pave the way for actual mining activity to begin.
How much spent so far on speculative activities
Sylvester Amankwaa Koranteng, Coordinator of the Ahafo North Relief Support Secretariat, an inter-governmental agency set up to facilitate the payment of the relief package to illegal structure owners, revealed that GHS23 million had so far been paid to 1,400 of them.
According to him, the highest beneficiary received GHS335,505 while the lowest GHS28,000 so far, depending on values of the unauthorised structure(s).
Majority of beneficiaries Mr Koranteng stressed are cooperating while a pocket of them have rejected the relief package due to dissatisfaction.
The agency, which is made up of representatives of the government, Newmont Ahafo North project, Ahafo Regional Coordinating Council, and the local communities, is working hard to bring the disbursement of the payment by the end of this month.
Dr Koney and his team who visited the secretariat to ascertain how the payment was being done, commended Newmont for the GHS45 million relief support to the illegal structure owners.
The gesture he noted would significantly help strengthen the relationship with the people in the five host communities- Adrobaa, Terchire, Afrisipa, Susuano, and Yamfo thereby creating a cordial and peaceful atmosphere for the mine to operate in the area smoothly.
Speculative activities hampering mining investment
The Chamber CEO said the regrettable speculative activities in mining areas are hampering mining investment in the country.
Dr Koney who has been part of mining investment delegations outside the country to seek investors for Ghana’s mining industry, emphasised that the activities of speculators, inadequate government security at the mines, among others are undermining their efforts to bring in investors.
He therefore called for combined efforts to stop the ungodly speculative activities in the mining industry.
Potential benefits of the Ahafo Mine
Dr Koney reiterated that the benefit of mining outweighs that of its negatives, saying the new Ahafo Region could attract more local and international businesses when the project begins.
He noted that mining companies consume a lot of basic inputs including food. As this region being one of the food baskets of the country would also transform agriculture with the production of the two projects.
Mining provides an opportunity for deep integration of the host communities with the mine and Dr Koney therefore urged the residents of the region to take advantage of the upcoming biggest mining project.
Newmont is noted for investing hugely in its operational areas and the country at large, so economic and social developments in the Ahafo areas are assured.
Even though actual mining is yet to start at the company’s Ahafo North concession, it has given an amount of GHS1 million to the Ahafo Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) to offer employable skills training for the teeming unemployed youth there.
The Ahafo Regional Minister, George Boakye who is elated with the Newmont’s unique action, assured that the six-administrative districts and municipalities of the region would organise an intensive skills training programme for the youth.
He added that the programme which would start very soon would train over 1,200 youth in welding and fabrication, dressmaking, hairdressing, pedicure, and manicure, among others.
The RCC that has prioritised local content according to Mr Boakye would enable the benefits of the programme to get jobs in the mine and other companies in the region.
Newmont, which currently employs over 8,000 employees and contractors in Ghana, is expected to increase the figures when its Ahafo North Mine project takes off.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report, back from Ahafo Region, Ghana
