AkromaGold Limited, a mining company operating in the Eastern Region of Ghana, has commenced a project to restore and reclaim previously mined sites in the Birim North District.
The exercise is part of the company’s proactive efforts to prevent a recurrence of the Obuasi incident, in which some illegal miners were trapped under a mining shaft of the Anglogold Ashanti Obuasi mines after they invaded the company’s concessions.
The company, which had earlier engaged chiefs and community members of Noyem and other surrounding areas in the district where it holds concessions, carried out a major reclamation exercise at its newly acquired concession at Noyem on June 23, 2023, with the assistance of a task force.
Over 1,500 residents of the area who had invaded the company’s Noyem site and were busily engaging in illegal mining were caught off guard when the team appeared at the site with machines for the exercise.
The illegal miners, both men and women, young and old, who had entered the mine shaft, connected electricity deep down the shaft, and were using explosives to blast the underground rocks, pleaded with the company to allow them some time to bring out their loads (gold sand), a plea which was accepted by the company for an hour before the exercise began.
Emmanuel Mintah, Deputy Director of Operations at AkromaGold Limited, who led the exercise, said in an interview with Citi News that the company was being proactive to avoid a recurrence of the Obuasi incident, in which some miners were trapped in a mine shaft.
He revealed that the company had an incident at Wusiwusi, in which a 14-year-old girl lost her life in a mining pit after some illegal miners invaded the company’s concession and left the pit bare after mining.
“There is a concession at Wusiwusi which also belongs to our sister company Akroma. A 14-year-old girl, while it was raining, tried to use a shortcut to get to school, but unfortunately, illegal miners who had come to engage in illegal activities did not cover the mining pit and the girl fell in and died.”
“As a company, we were held responsible for that even though we were not the ones mining on that concession. So we don’t want any of such issues to happen again. That is why we are being proactive in doing things now,” he stated.
Mr. Mintah said the activities of illegal miners were a cause for concern because they not only destroyed the land, but they also made it extremely difficult to reclaim the land.
He urged the community members to cooperate with the company in its efforts to reclaim the mined sites.