The National Coordinator for Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small Scale Mining Project (GLRSSMP) John Kingsley Krugu has said, there is a lot of negotiation going on as far as mining activities in the Upper East Region are concerned.
Dr. Krugu confirmed this during an engagement on Apexnews Ghana’s flagship development programme dubbed “SPEAKOUT UPPER EAST REGION” with Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. He said: “The whole of the Upper East is pretty rich with resources and this is the time to make sure we got right”
Asking the National Coordinator for Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small Scale Mining Project to educate us by letting us know some existing mining areas in the region, he said: “Is been mined in Talensi, is also been mined in Zongoyire at the Zongoyire concession and as well there is a mining company in Zongoyire and they have an exploration license and they are also currently busy in the area and don’t forget, there is another company that owns a concession in the Sapeliga area that shares borders with Burkina Faso. So, there is a lot that is going on”.
According to him, “Some people have said that the future of gold mining is in the north and now if you looked at Talensi, there are two large-scale mining companies there, we have Earl International the former Shaanxi that was providing mining support services but now transformed into Earl International and bought the small scale and concession into a large scale. Then you have Cardinal Namdini Mining Limited and they are even building a much bigger mine and is in the area of investment of around $200 million dollars. Clearly, this is the direction of the future”. He stressed
He said: “Just imagine that when Cardinal is completed and the Zongoyire exploration that is going on and they happen to get a mineral in commercial quantity and you also have a large-scale mine there, we will end up with 3 large-scale mining within the area and that alone will blow up Upper East”. He hinted
“I can tell you because a large-scale mine provides several employment opportunities and also several other support businesses. This is the future” He maintained.
Responding to the issue of denying indigenes access to what is due them as far as the natural resources are concerned which atimes end up putting them into abject suffering and poverty Dr. Krugu said: Of course, wherever there are mineral resources you will see people in difficulty, and having access to those resources becomes an issue and in most cases, the indigenes get impoverished instead of being blessed with those resources.
“But there have been a lot of lessons learned. Sam Jonah will tell you how South Africans became beneficiaries when they became owners of the resources of the concessions and they became investors. Unfortunately, the mining sector is expensive, because you need enough resources and that is when you become a better beneficiary”.
He said: “those lessons have been learned and those lessons are been put to negotiation with Earl International. You know they acquired the small-scale mining license from certain individuals in the Talensi area, we know that they pay them money, the negotiation also included equity so it was not just cash that they gave to them”.
“The point is that the small-scale miners got an equity share, not just money they took home but in the future, they have a percentage share of whatever the mining company is getting. What that means is that the size of whatever the mining company gets, the bigger their shares become”
“Now, those are the lessons we have learned. What it means is that the indigenes don’t get impoverished but they will continue to benefit and those kinds of negotiations are going on as I speak to you in the Zongoyire area. We are in discussion with the company that is doing the exploration because the youth there cannot wait for the exploration to be completed for them to see whether the resources are in large quantities to get investors to come and do large-scale mining”.
However, just on a lighter note, Dr. Krugu acknowledged that folks are hungry and they cannot wait. “So, we are in negotiation with the mining company to say, give us a portion of the concession for community mining for the youth to find something to do and earn little income”.
Source: Apexnewsgh.com|Ghana
For publication please kindly contact us on 0256336062 or Email: apexnewsgh@gmail.com
