By Collins Agyekum-Gyasi, Konongo
THE Ashanti office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has organised a day’s public forum for the regulators of all the 17 communities that would be affected by the mining activities of the Owere Mines Limited (OML) at the Jubilee Park at Konongo Odumasi in the Asante Akyem North District of Ashanti.
The forum was to come out with an official communiqué issued by the custodians of the land on the impact and benefits from the project.
Chiefs, elders and representatives of the communities attended it. Also present were representatives from the Minerals Commission, Mines Department, Ministry of Science and Technology, Lands and Forestry and Water Resources Commission.
Mr Osei Bonsu, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), urged the chiefs in the operational area to come together and prepare a communiqué, which could be beneficial to their communities rather than each community coming out with its own proposal.
He said since their grandfathers could not protect the minerals but gave them out to the ‘white men’, now all the fertile lands, cocoa, timber and others were not yeilding therequired income while the whites had preserved theirs in large quantities for posterity.
Mr Osei Bonsu advised them to remember what mining operations had bequeathed on some of the communities since the last 100 years and compare their findings before coming out with a concrete decision.
“You must think of the community and the people and not your individual welfare. Think of what lies ahead and what the future holds or looks like. Think of what the children in the next 100 years will live on before you come to a conclusion; or they will blame you,” he cautioned, stressing that they should think through these before coming out with a decision.
The MCE said companies, in the past, had failed to deliver on their promises and warned the management of OML to adhere strictly to its corporate norms and practices within its time frame in the municipality.
Mr Roger Bannister, Project Manager, speaking on the OML’s policy towards the protection of the environment, said the company was in the process of acquiring an environmental permit from the EPA. however, the project would be a typical open pit mine, using conventional equipment and mining with local mining contractors in the country. He promised that the company would strictly conform to recommended practices.
The first phase, according to Mr Bannister, a.k.a Asante Agyeman, involves excavating and treatment of old Konongo tailings, cutting back on some existing mined-out pits to reach ‘deeper for the ore material’, stressed it would mostly be centered around already disturbed or mined areas with little or no additional areas.
“ We will use recommended practice by stripping off top soil, stockpiling and appropriately labelling them prior to excavation, while processing would involve crushing, grinding and the use of Carbon In Leach (CIL), treatment method in the first two to three years.
“Monitoring bores will be installed at specific points to monitor quality and possible impact on underground water, while trench for the pipeline from plant to Tailing Storage Facility (TSF) will be lined with HDPE (tarpaulin) liner to contain leakage and protect underground water.” he stated.
Mr Ransford Sekyi, the Regional EPA Officer and chairman for the occasion, said the concession would cover about 126 kilometres, while work would commence on about 200hectres of Greenfield, which would include 80 kilometres of the old sites at Odumasi and Obenimase.
He said work would start with three old pits and appealed to the communities not to encroach upon the land because they want compensation.
The Owere Mines Limited is a Ghanaian-Australian owned company, which was incorporated by African Gold in joint ventureship with Talos Ghana Limited. The OML has been engaged in exploration and care maintenance and an initial mine study phase was completed in May, this year.
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