Two licensed Ghanaian small-scale mining groups in the Gbane community in the Talensi district of the Upper East region, Yenyeya and Pabortaaba are at loggerheads with their service provider – Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited.
The two legal small-scale mining groups, with each having 25 acres of land, fused their areas to make up 50 acres of land and courted into Ghana, the Chinese company – Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited.
This partnership paved way for the Chinese firm to offer support services to its local counterparts in the area such as technical, managerial, logistical, laboratory, haulage, and financial assistance.
Over 10 years of working together, Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited has acquired a large-scale mining lease to evolve into large-scale gold mining under a new name Earl International Group Ghana Gold Limited.
This new facet is however breeding a misunderstanding between the small-scale mining firms and their service provider.
The Managing Director of the Yenyeya Mining Limited, Charles Ndanbon feels they have been betrayed by the Chinese mining company which is in the process of acquiring a large-scale mining license without their knowledge.
“I have tried to get a license for large-scale mining but all have proven futile and all of a sudden these people are saying that they have applied for a large-scale license. I am not against investors but I would have wished that the government of Ghana had given the large-scale mining license to Yenyeya and Pabortaaba. I brought Shaanxi into the country, so if they are going in for a large-scale mining license, I think they should have informed us because currently, they are operating under the licenses of Yenyeya and Parbortaaba mining groups. I am not talking alone as Charles but the small scale miners around”
Mr. Ndanbon who expressed regret of what he described as a “matter of concern” added that he had made conscious efforts to meet his service provider – Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited on how they could settle the seeming dispute but “all the letters that I wrote, they [Shaanxi] drop them down”.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer for Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited, Maxwell Wooma has indicated that the Minerals Commission, between 2014/2015 identified the rock in the area as hard and deep-seated and thus cannot be mined by small scale miners with less technology.
Buttressing his point, Mr. Wooma revealed that Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited in its quest to expand its horizon established a sister company known as Earl International Group Ghana Gold Limited which applied and granted a large scale mining lease in 2019 after the Minerals Commission de-blocked the area to pave way for companies with financial muscles and technical know-how to tap into the available opportunity.
While allaying the fears of Yenyeya and Pabortaaba mining groups as well as the other small-scale mining firms under the concession of the new company, the PRO mentioned an exit or partnership plan his outfit together with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is putting in place for them.
“EPA is to grant us an environmental permit and as part of the processes, there are socioeconomic factors they need to look at which involves the livelihood of the small-scale miners who are within this large-scale lease area. There are ongoing discussions on how we can satisfy our previous partners either through an exit plan or a partnership plan and then people who are not part of the business but have fallen within this large scale mining area”
With a current workforce of 725, the PRO disclosed that 540 permanent workers of Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited are from the Gbane and neighboring communities in the Upper East Region.
Mr. Wooma disclosed that the evolvement of Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited into a large scale gold mining under its new name, Earl International Group Ghana Gold Limited hopes to provide about 1, 450 jobs to the teaming unemployed youth in the Upper East Region and the country at large.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah
