Newmont Africa, Ahafo South Mine, says it is working to address the speculative activities that had delayed the expansion of its Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) Project at Dokyikrom.
Mr Samuel Osei, Communications and External Relations Manager of Newmont Africa, Ahafo South and North Mines, said the Mine was committed to working within the regulatory framework to ensure that people who would be impacted by the projects were adequately resettled and compensated.
Speaking to journalists after a tour of some communities where people have suddenly constructed physical structures like houses and others, in an anticipation for compensations, he said that had caused the delay in the resettlement and compensation of land and property owners in the area.
During the visit by the journalists to communities such as Dokyikrom in the Asutifi District, one of the project catchment areas, it was realized that some people had hurriedly constructed structures after the enumeration cut-off date, which was July 2019.
According to him, the company realized the TSF was almost full, and secured a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to relocate people within the catchment area of the tailing’s expansion project.
The expansion of TSF was to enable the mining firm to store enough waste to be able to produce more gold.
Mr Osei said some residents, after all the enumerations of various structures on the site had been done, went ahead to put up fake structures to demand compensation.
He told the media that for two years now, the mounting of illegal structures was just delaying actions in taking adequate stock of the resettlement process.
“In trying to resolve these issues, there has been a lot of back and forth.
“And these are the things that have delayed the resettlement the community is asking for.
“Because without some of these illegalities, if we had worked with structures that were captured during enumeration on the cut-off date (July 2019) we would have gone really far with the process.”
Mr. Osei urged the community members to commit to good faith dialogue and be transparent in dealing with the issues, stating that regulatory bodies like the EPA had attested that those wrongful structures should not be compensated for.
When the journalists spoke with Mr Ahmed Nantogmah, Director of External Relations and Communication, at the Ghana Chamber Mines, he indicated that there were laws that regulated mining, and speculative activities were bad for Ghana as a mining destination.
The speculative structures, he said, was delaying the resettlement process, explaining that the more the process delayed the project, the higher chances of negative effects on Ghana’s income earning on mining.
At Dokyikrom, journalists, after capturing some of the speculative structures, spoke with community members who denied extending or erecting new structures after the cut-off date in July 2019.
The community members, however, expected that the mining company and all stakeholders expedited actions in the resettlement and compensation processes.
