2024 flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has asked the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration not to take credit for the Obuasi Deeps Decline (ODD) project.
According to John Mahama, the ODD which began in 2018 and produced its first gold in the fourth quarter of 2019 was an idea that was birthed by AngloGold and the NDC government in 2014.
Speaking at the palace of Opagyakotwere Bonsra Afriyie II, –the Adansihene, — Thursday, January 25, 2024, John Mahama said those who do not know how the project was birthed assumed the NDC administration antagonised the works of Anglogold Ashanti Minie which is not the case.
About 90% of our members face job insecurity due to non-standard forms of employment – GMWU
“We realised the gold production of AshantiGold was dwindling when I was President in 2014. There were many companies that were producing more than what was being produced at Obuasi, even though AshantiGold came to Ghana before them. So they presented their amended programme of mining operations in Obuasi to me in 2014.
“They said their mining scope had hit a snag and asked that we grant them the permit to secure further equipment to mine further into the deep. They demanded that we suspend the operations so that they can use the funds they would have expended to bring other companies of expertise and the requisite equipment here in Ghana.
“So I asked my Minister of Lands and Natural Resources to suspend it and he did and that was the beginning of the ODD which is the Obuasi Deeps Decline. They attained 60 per cent of that between 2014 and when we left office in 2016.
“Tha,t is the Obuasi Deep Decline this government came to launch here so that was from our time but some people felt we antagonised AngloGold until a new government came before they were allowed to work. So the current state of AngloGold stems from the work we began in 2014,” he indicated.
Obuasi: ‘Leave AngloGold Ashanti’s concessions’ – MCE to illegal miners
John Mahama is on a three-day tour to the Ashanti region as part of his ‘Building Ghana Tour’ where ideas of residents are sought through Town Hall meetings to fill up the NDC’s People’s Manifesto.
