The Asanda Farmers Association has waded into the raging controversy surrounding the revocation of the mining lease of Northern Ashanti Mines, describing the action by the Minerals Commission as harsh.
In an interview with the media on November 3, the Secretary of the Asanda Farmers Association, Mr Aidoo Emmanuel, expressed worry over the Minerals Commission’s appetite and penchant for revoking licences of indigenous mines when there are several options for remedying the situation.
Mr Aidoo maintained that dialogue should be the priority of the Minerals Commission instead of always revoking licences, adding that Government stands to benefit more when the company is in operation than when it is shut down.
“Granted Northern Ashanti Mines owes GH¢8.3 billion as they claim, how do they recover that money if the company is shut down?
“Rather, you guide them to do the right thing so they generate enough to pay the debt. That should be the best way to go, not revocation,” Mr Aidoo emphasised.
He said he had learnt that the Minerals Commission did not notify the company as enshrined in law before revoking its licence, describing the action as unfair.
“As it stands now, there should be discussions between Government and Northern Ashanti Mines so that if there are loopholes with regards to the operation of the Mines, then you can ask her to put things in the right direction,” the Secretary of the Association stressed.
“But for you to suddenly revoke the licence, I don’t think it is fair to a woman who has employed many Ghanaians across her mining companies and is respected beyond the borders of Ghana,” he added.
Asked how the revocation concerns the farmer group, Mr Aidoo explained that they are beneficiaries of the operations of the mining company, as most of their children, he said, have been employed by the company, thus making life comfortable for their children and relatives.
He warned that the revocation of the licences of indigenous mining companies could spell doom for the country, urging Government to see the huge redundancy to be created as a result of the lease revocation as a national security issue.
Mr Aidoo is therefore appealing to Government to intervene and grant reprieve to Northern Ashanti Mines just as it did to Adamus, and guide the company to work viably.
The revocation of Northern Ashanti Mines’ lease has since received backlash from the public and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), many of whom have described it as unlawful.
One such CSO is the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), whose Chair, Dr Steve Manteaw, said the outstanding statutory debt alone should not be sufficient grounds for revoking the mining lease of Northern Ashanti Mines, urging the Government to negotiate payment arrangements with the company.
He argues that keeping a mining business operational should be in the interest of regulators because it enables the company to generate revenue and settle its outstanding obligations.
He appealed to the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources to find a less acrimonious way of handling the matter, warning that the current approach could undermine confidence in the Government’s commitment to promoting local ownership of the mining sector.
“It’s not turning out well for the government,” he added.
