The Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, Science and Innovation have visited the only two large scale mining companies with heavy impact on the environment in the Upper East Region to assess the level of environmental compliance.
The also examined the steps these mining companies are taking to minimize environmental effects to the public.
Cardinal Namdini and Earl international group Gold Ghana limited, the two mining companies have all assured the committee of full compliance in some of the regulation gaps identified by the committee.
The committee first visited Cardinal Namdini where they assessed the environmental compliance and made recommendations and directives on certain lapses in their operations.
The committee recommended to the two mining companies to put in place measures to take care of people whose livelihood activities are affected by the environmental activities.
The Chairman of the committee and member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Prof Adam Hamza thanked the two mining giants for a kind reception and cooperation during the visit.
“The Ministry of Environment and Agencies, by law and by outstanding orders, are supposed to ensure that companies or institutions that have a heavy impact on the environment go through compliance and are permitted to be able to do the activities. So we, as members of the committee, came to ascertain the extent to which the mining companies are complying with environmental regulations.
And so we have had some interaction with the team of Cardinal Mines and Earl International group Gold Ghana limited, which was quite successful. And after which we came to the field to see how they are going about it. As you can see, these activities are generating a lot of hazards. You can see that so much dust and all that. So, we tried to find out from them how they are, the steps they are taking to ensure that the environmental effects are minimised as much as possible. So the committee has listened to them”, he said.
On the issue of permitting, the Chairman of the committee said when they went through their (Cardinal Namdini and Earl international group Gold Ghana limited) books, they realised that they are up to date, but they are trying to see if there are issues that have to be pointed out for them to look at.
The Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Cardinal Namdini, Jinquan Wang said the plan by the government to increase the Royalty payment from 5% to 12% will affect the company due to the recovery rate of their operations.
“The low grades of the ore, and couple that with a very low recovery, that makes our situation dire, and that pushes him to want to think about recent national discussions of increasing the royalty from between 5% to 12% and above, that makes it very difficult, and that from your August house, as you debate the matters, you should consider companies with unique situations like our company, because if you pass such, it means that companies like us cannot survive, we are already struggling to see how we can make money to pay the loans that we took to start this project, we are not even talking of breaking even, nor making profits, but even how to recover, repay the loans, get the cash to be able to remain in operations, that remains a very big challenge for him as chairman and workers of this company So as we discuss this nationally, may we be thinking of situations that companies like Cardinal face, so that you don’t pass an omnibus law that may, at the end of the day, collapse enterprises like ours”, he lamented.
At Earl International Group Gold Ghana limited, the Assistant Public Relations Officer, Albert Azongo reported to the committee of how their underground operations are being encroached by illegal miners which is the main challenge of the company.
The trespassing and encroaching of Earl International Group Gold Ghana Limited’s underground mines is a ritual activity of illegal miners in the Gbane gold project area through unapproved pits linking to the company’s underground operations.
Several efforts to seal off these illegal pits met with force from the illegal miners resulting in causalities and tension in the Gbane community and its environs. And this is one of the challenges the company complained to the Environment Science and Innovation Committee in Parliament.
Another issue hindering the operations of the company is insecurity coupled with armed robbery resulting in the loss of lives of workers and residents.
But according to Mr Azongo, 250 litres of diesel is given to the Ghana Police Service weekly for patrolling purposes as part of internal security mechanisms to reduce the rate of armed robbery in the area.
Albert Azongo disclosed that, the company is targeting 1500 work force in the coming years after the completion of the shafts that are under construction and that residents in the Talensi District makes up the greater part of the working force as part of meeting the local content component of the Minerals and Mining Act and the commitment of fulfilling the human centered approach.
The committee has therefore assured the two mining companies of government support in making sure mining entities work comfortably to contribute to the development of the nation and also their concerns on the royalty and the illegal encroachment of the mines respectively are addressed and considered.
By Tanko Mohammed Rabiu
